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I’ve been writing mobile apps since 2013. Cross Platform UI is a myth. Just use a framework and language you are familiar or comfortable with. I prefer native s

by snyp 3y ago

I’ve been writing mobile apps since 2013. Cross Platform UI is a myth. Just use a framework and language you are familiar or comfortable with. I prefer native so I just stick to that. You are sure to be most productive in languages you are familiar with rather than any new/old cross platform UI framework. Just be cognizant of the fact that all of them have trade offs.

krembanan 3y ago
> Cross Platform UI is a myth How can you say this when many of the worlds most used apps are written in React Native? Same with Electron and desktop apps. I find it hard to believe you can be more productive writing native code when you need two entirely different codebases, compared to a single one, no matter how good of an iOS and Android developer you are.
- brailsafe 3y ago
  It's just reps no matter how you do it.
- waboremo 3y ago
  You do realize you still have to write a lot of native code in cross platform apps, right? It's what all the most used apps do. This idea that individually you can be more productive on a cross platform app has no basis in reality. You're still having to concern yourself with platform specific aspects, except now you're also throwing in another layer into the mix for your shared aspects. These shared aspects tend to also not be up to user expectation most of the time, so you're having to rewrite things that comes easy for native apps, to ensure consistency and accessibility. Such moves makes sense for Facebook. Given who they hire, what they work on. Same for Microsoft, but not sure using them is a good example considering their app experiences are universally terrible. For a lot of other places though? There has been a grand total of zero proven demonstration of increased productivity or dramatic savings. You still have to hire android/ios/windows/mac/linux devs respectfully whenever you eventually want to expand to those platforms.
  - wiseowise 3y ago
    > You do realize you still have to write a lot of native code in cross platform apps, right? It's what all the most used apps do. You asked from cross platform UI framework, not for abstracted away mobile development framework.
- wk_end 3y ago
  I don't know if I was using React Native "wrong" or what, but when I tried it out I found it to be a miserable experience. There's almost no usable components "built-in"...there seems to be an expectation that you cobble your UI together using one of a variety of different third-party components or component libraries, and every single one I tried was incomplete, buggy, poorly-maintained, poorly-documented... Based on that trial: I'd much rather work on two sane codebases instead of one in React Native that's a maintenance disaster. As a bonus, since your apps will be native, they'll probably be faster, feel higher quality, integrate better with the platforms, etc.
  - tentacleuno 3y ago
    You were using it wrong IMO. The platform comes with a lot of built-in components (just look at the docs!) just from importing the React Native package.
- pjmlp 3y ago
  Because when problems come up you need an iOS and Android developer to sort them for you.
nwienert 3y ago
A lot of people saying it doesn’t exist or work, but as the creator of Tamagui, I have to vouch for it. I think it works pretty amazingly, and we have some really beautiful apps in every App Store (plus web).
- zengid 3y ago
  Hey that looks pretty cool! https://github.com/tamagui/tamagui https://github.com/tamagui/tamagui
- marcellus23 3y ago
  Do you have a link to an example iOS app built in Tamagui to check out?
  - nwienert 3y ago
    The beta https://beta.aidungeon.com https://beta.aidungeon.com is pretty nice, not sure if the app is public yet or still on TestFlight.
- rudedogg 3y ago
  Sorry but what you say just isn't possible. Especially with a browser-based cross-platform solution, you're gonna pay on the performance and native integration front. What you built looks nice and I'm sure it works well for many classes of apps though.
  - nwienert 3y ago
    React Native renders to native views on iOS, Android, Windows and Mac!
- waboremo 3y ago
  It certainly exists/works, but is it productive? With my time using Tamagui I would go with no. There are just so many traps everywhere. 99% of it isn't your fault, just the name of the fragile RN game. Install another package here to handle one use case on one platform, avoid this component on one platform because RN doesn't support this thing, entire blocks of very simple styles commented out due to performance cost. List goes on. It's a never-ending game of your codebase feeling horribly fragile, and that's if you remain within the RN = Android and iOS realm. As soon as you start trying to get it to be truly cross platform with desktop apps - endless nightmares. I so desperately want cross-platform development to feel as smooth as people proclaim, but it's really like playing russian roulette with every new component added. At the end, you question if it was really worth it due to how much you've had to rewrite anyways. You become sort of delirious after working on a project that uses such solutions, wondering if you traded user experience for developer experience and wound up messing both up in the long run. Beautiful site/docs though.

by snyp 3y ago

krembanan 3y ago

> Cross Platform UI is a myth How can you say this when many of the worlds most used apps are written in React Native? Same with Electron and desktop apps. I find it hard to believe you can be more productive writing native code when you need two entirely different codebases, compared to a single one, no matter how good of an iOS and Android developer you are.

brailsafe 3y ago
It's just reps no matter how you do it.
waboremo 3y ago
You do realize you still have to write a lot of native code in cross platform apps, right? It's what all the most used apps do. This idea that individually you can be more productive on a cross platform app has no basis in reality. You're still having to concern yourself with platform specific aspects, except now you're also throwing in another layer into the mix for your shared aspects. These shared aspects tend to also not be up to user expectation most of the time, so you're having to rewrite things that comes easy for native apps, to ensure consistency and accessibility. Such moves makes sense for Facebook. Given who they hire, what they work on. Same for Microsoft, but not sure using them is a good example considering their app experiences are universally terrible. For a lot of other places though? There has been a grand total of zero proven demonstration of increased productivity or dramatic savings. You still have to hire android/ios/windows/mac/linux devs respectfully whenever you eventually want to expand to those platforms.
- wiseowise 3y ago
  > You do realize you still have to write a lot of native code in cross platform apps, right? It's what all the most used apps do. You asked from cross platform UI framework, not for abstracted away mobile development framework.
wk_end 3y ago
I don't know if I was using React Native "wrong" or what, but when I tried it out I found it to be a miserable experience. There's almost no usable components "built-in"...there seems to be an expectation that you cobble your UI together using one of a variety of different third-party components or component libraries, and every single one I tried was incomplete, buggy, poorly-maintained, poorly-documented... Based on that trial: I'd much rather work on two sane codebases instead of one in React Native that's a maintenance disaster. As a bonus, since your apps will be native, they'll probably be faster, feel higher quality, integrate better with the platforms, etc.
- tentacleuno 3y ago
  You were using it wrong IMO. The platform comes with a lot of built-in components (just look at the docs!) just from importing the React Native package.
pjmlp 3y ago
Because when problems come up you need an iOS and Android developer to sort them for you.

nwienert 3y ago

A lot of people saying it doesn’t exist or work, but as the creator of Tamagui, I have to vouch for it. I think it works pretty amazingly, and we have some really beautiful apps in every App Store (plus web).

zengid 3y ago
Hey that looks pretty cool! https://github.com/tamagui/tamagui https://github.com/tamagui/tamagui
marcellus23 3y ago
Do you have a link to an example iOS app built in Tamagui to check out?
- nwienert 3y ago
  The beta https://beta.aidungeon.com https://beta.aidungeon.com is pretty nice, not sure if the app is public yet or still on TestFlight.
rudedogg 3y ago
Sorry but what you say just isn't possible. Especially with a browser-based cross-platform solution, you're gonna pay on the performance and native integration front. What you built looks nice and I'm sure it works well for many classes of apps though.
- nwienert 3y ago
  React Native renders to native views on iOS, Android, Windows and Mac!
waboremo 3y ago
It certainly exists/works, but is it productive? With my time using Tamagui I would go with no. There are just so many traps everywhere. 99% of it isn't your fault, just the name of the fragile RN game. Install another package here to handle one use case on one platform, avoid this component on one platform because RN doesn't support this thing, entire blocks of very simple styles commented out due to performance cost. List goes on. It's a never-ending game of your codebase feeling horribly fragile, and that's if you remain within the RN = Android and iOS realm. As soon as you start trying to get it to be truly cross platform with desktop apps - endless nightmares. I so desperately want cross-platform development to feel as smooth as people proclaim, but it's really like playing russian roulette with every new component added. At the end, you question if it was really worth it due to how much you've had to rewrite anyways. You become sort of delirious after working on a project that uses such solutions, wondering if you traded user experience for developer experience and wound up messing both up in the long run. Beautiful site/docs though.