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I just had my first encounter with React Native and it wasn't a good one. It's the typical JavaScript dependency hell where things blow up at run-time with cryp

by dep_b 8y ago

I just had my first encounter with React Native and it wasn't a good one. It's the typical JavaScript dependency hell where things blow up at run-time with cryptical errors and tons of people on SO / GitHub just saying "use a lower version", to get another error and reading "this is fixed in the latest version" which was the one I was just coming from. This built on top of the iOS build system and everything is intertwined in both directions at least a few times. I've seen builds working starting the iOS app from command line, only to break _everything_ just starting the application from within Xcode. And Android? I didn't even look into it anymore. I think they're at 0.57 or something and that version number just wants to tell you one thing: We're going to break your shit some more in the near future before the dust finally settles.

resters 8y ago
What library/libraries gave you issues?
zebraflask 8y ago
I had a similar experience. The idea of React Native is pretty great, but the difficulty developing with it is a significant drawback.
sudhirj 8y ago
Flutter also has a bit of dependency hell at this point (might be better after it goes stable) - tried installing built_value (immutable data structures) and had a do a lot of dependency version tweaking and overrides.
SomeCallMeTim 8y ago
I'm hearing this complaint a lot about React Native in particular: That Facebook's "Move Fast And Break Things" philosophy is alive and well in the management of the project. Most recently the stories were about specific controls that worked on Android but on on iOS, and then the new version arrives, breaks the Android behavior but fixes the iOS behavior...or vice versa, sometimes for the same control, in a later release. I've heard better things about NativeScript; it's actually a more mature project than React Native, and has a lot of features that React Native lacks. And it's apparently a lot more stable. But fewer people use NativeScript, so it's possible that I'm just not hearing as many of the horror stories. Also curious about Weex. But I'm not making apps right now, so I haven't tried any of the above. People keep wanting to pay me lots of money to work on easy backend projects. Who am I to say no? :)

by dep_b 8y ago

resters 8y ago

What library/libraries gave you issues?

zebraflask 8y ago

I had a similar experience. The idea of React Native is pretty great, but the difficulty developing with it is a significant drawback.

sudhirj 8y ago

Flutter also has a bit of dependency hell at this point (might be better after it goes stable) - tried installing built_value (immutable data structures) and had a do a lot of dependency version tweaking and overrides.

SomeCallMeTim 8y ago

I'm hearing this complaint a lot about React Native in particular: That Facebook's "Move Fast And Break Things" philosophy is alive and well in the management of the project. Most recently the stories were about specific controls that worked on Android but on on iOS, and then the new version arrives, breaks the Android behavior but fixes the iOS behavior...or vice versa, sometimes for the same control, in a later release. I've heard better things about NativeScript; it's actually a more mature project than React Native, and has a lot of features that React Native lacks. And it's apparently a lot more stable. But fewer people use NativeScript, so it's possible that I'm just not hearing as many of the horror stories. Also curious about Weex. But I'm not making apps right now, so I haven't tried any of the above. People keep wanting to pay me lots of money to work on easy backend projects. Who am I to say no? :)