So I just thought I would put my thoughts into this, I've been using React Native to create a number of Apps for a very large company for a few years now. These Apps are used out in the wild and I get to see them being used. As a codebase I think it's great - a really nice way of working and creating something. It's got great integration with tools and the general code setup is really nice.
However; If I'm being honest I don't think I've ever seen a worse managed project in my career. Each version that comes out seems to be completely incompatible with the previous one. Getting the App to simply run can take far longer than it takes to actually build the app. There is no locking of library versions so things conflict constantly. Often times the team will update React Native to use some new feature, this makes all backwards compatibility with Xcode incompatible. I think I drew the line when the advice was, just update your whole OS, download the latest Xcode, Yarn and then this latest version will work.
To be frank, it's infuriating - and I know it's not yet 'officially' released but if this is the state of how they plan to manage React Native in the future, I can't see much hope in it. And that would be a shame, because as a framework I think it's fantastic.
I never really understood the version numbering. It's still pre-1.0 and yet it's somehow production ready and encouraged. We're using React Native at work but I'm really conflicted about it for a number of reasons. As the sole mobile developer it's my responsibility to deliver our apps but something in the back of my mind doesn't sit comfortably pinning everything on a framework that isn't even v1.0 yet and it shows.
However; If I'm being honest I don't think I've ever seen a worse managed project in my career. Each version that comes out seems to be completely incompatible with the previous one. Getting the App to simply run can take far longer than it takes to actually build the app. There is no locking of library versions so things conflict constantly. Often times the team will update React Native to use some new feature, this makes all backwards compatibility with Xcode incompatible. I think I drew the line when the advice was, just update your whole OS, download the latest Xcode, Yarn and then this latest version will work.
To be frank, it's infuriating - and I know it's not yet 'officially' released but if this is the state of how they plan to manage React Native in the future, I can't see much hope in it. And that would be a shame, because as a framework I think it's fantastic.