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by vbezhenar 3326 days ago
I'm going through a similar experience. I have some experience with Objective C and iOS, almost nothing with Android and I have good experience with (non-mobile) Java. Basically I have a week to build Android app which should be quickly ported to iOS. So far my experience is mixed. React Native feels like very powerful tech. But standard library is very minimal, tooling looks very fragile (it works, but I'm very afraid of the moment when those thousand node-gradle scripts will break), things like navigation look very complicated (I investigated react-navigation, had quick glance over other solutions and finally decided to roll my own tiny navigation and animated menu). Modern JavaScript is OK, I guess, though it's so far from proper typed language with proper tooling like Java.

What I wish to exist is something like Kotlin with react-native like library, with single good cross-platform library of components and good solid tooling.

Facebook developers are awesome, but they are paid for Facebook apps, not for making good library, IMO, good library is just a by-product which they kindly shared and it feels everywhere.

Overall I think React Native is the best cross-platform solution out there. It doesn't carry overhead of bundled HTML webview, its view is advanced enough for complex GUI, it provides smooth animations and React is something very interesting actually. Also you can push updates without app-store approvals, if I got that right (I'm not sure about Apple). For apps built in haste with multiple bug-fixes every hours it's important.
2 comments
skevy 3326 days ago
Navigation is indeed a hairy beast right now. We're working hard to get React-navigation in shape for 1.0. I think the solutions from Wix and Airbnb are fantastic -- but the community deserves a really polished, JS-only solution that's ready for production. I hope you take another look at React-Nav when we release 1.0!

Disclaimer: I work on React Native, react-navigation, etc @ Expo (expo.io)

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platz 3326 days ago
> Kotlin

isn't Reason supposed to fill this role?

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hamstercat 3326 days ago
I recommend https://github.com/wix/react-native-navigation for now, the docs is well done and makes it easier to integrate with. The UI part is implemented natively, but you interact with it on the JavaScript side.

AirBnB just started working on one too that seems promising, but it's not ready for primetime yet.

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