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React Native Retrospective

Bonnie Eisenman

React Europe 2016

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Hi! I'm Bonnie

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The world before

React Native

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(jk)

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Mobile development is hard.

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Mobile dev

  • Platform-specific arcana
    • Objective-C or Swift (June 2014) on iOS
    • Java on Android
  • Siloed knowledge
  • Re-build all the things!

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No great alternatives.

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React Conf

January 2015

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The Promise

  • Learn once, write anywhere
  • Write JavaScript for iOS and Android
  • ...with native-level performance

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"It's not interesting that we're trying this - what'll matter is if we get it right."

- React Conf 2015

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"...and we passed around illicit flash drives with the source code…"

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"It feels like web development, just targeting a different platform."

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React Native Alpha

  • Sparse docs
  • Incomplete API
  • iOS-only
  • Compelling enough to drive the hype

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Why the Excitement?

  • Mobile development for web developers
  • Promise: "Learn once, write anywhere"
  • Instant gratification
  • Well-loved development patterns from React

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Public Release

March 2015

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...and everything was perfect.

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Of course not!

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#EarlyAdopterProblems

  • Setup is weird
  • Best practices are WIP
  • Can't develop from Linux or Windows
  • No Android support, release date TBD
  • Breaking changes in each release

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...and people still were excited.

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Six Months Later

September 2015

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Android Release

September 2015

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The Promise

  • Learn once, write anywhere
  • Write JavaScript for iOS and Android
  • ...with native-level performance

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So...are we there yet?

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Basically?!

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Present Day

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So where are we now?

What is React Native?

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Two stories.

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React Native lets you build native-quality iOS and Android apps with JavaScript + React.

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iOS

Android

Windows

Tizen

OS X (WIP)

Web (WIP)

React Native

Angular / React / ????

Your App

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React Native is not about mobile or React!

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Both of these are true.

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"React Native is...developer efficiency across all the platforms you care about — learn once, write anywhere."

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Go forth & build!

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  • Talk to me! I'm @brindelle on Twitter
  • Buy my book! 40% off with code AUTHD from O'Reilly at bit.ly/learningreactnative
  • Thanks!

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Questions?