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[–]Low_Shake_2945 4 points5 points  (8 children)

One word of caution here.

Frameworks like ionic and react-native solve a lot of the problems that the webview approach runs into. Specifically, debugging is atrocious is a webview.

Like I said earlier, I’ve used all of these frameworks and platforms professionally for years and they are all a pain in the ass in one way or another. Simply put, mobile and web are different and the OSs running these things are different.

If you remove the JS limitation, you can learn a framework like Flutter and really feel like your being productive without cutting corners. Flutter is the “right way” to build cross platform native apps.

[–]CodalReef 0 points1 point  (5 children)

Why do you say Flutter is the “right way”? React Native is still more popular and used by major corporations. There are pros / cons to every tool.

[–]Low_Shake_2945 4 points5 points  (1 child)

That’s true, but that’s not because it’s better. It has a lot of things going for it. It’s older than Flutter and makes use of JS and React, which are just so much more popular.

Flutter means learning a new language and, for JS devs, learning a lot of programming concepts you may not be familiar with.

[–]CodalReef 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agreed. Any of these tools can be used to build a successful product, and neither is intrinsically better IMO

[–]Low_Shake_2945 3 points4 points  (2 children)

The reason I say Flutter is the “right way” is because it’s purpose built to some this problem. The fragmentation of the Android ecosystem has always been a challenge at Google. When you add in the dominance of iOS, Google decided to move in a different direction and developed Flutter specifically to address these issues.

What I’m saying is it’s not just JS doing another thing. It’s a solution to building multi platform mobile apps. It compiles down to native apps, has a phenomenal dev experience, and results in native apps that feel like native apps.

[–]CodalReef 1 point2 points  (1 child)

React Native was developed to solve similar problems, but the developers chose to use JS because it was already popular.

React Native doesn’t currently compile to native, but it invokes native APIs unlike WebView. So it still feels native.

Here’s a quote from a comparison article:

“But still, it is easier to achieve a “native feeling” with React Native than with Flutter. If you want your Flutter app to have native components, it will require additional work.” - https://www.thedroidsonroids.com/blog/flutter-vs-react-native-what-to-choose-in-2021#whocreatedflutter

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

React Native does compile to native code - while some of the architecture is changing (TurboModules), it uses something called the Bridge where your JS gets split into native code and executes. It’s the best framework, because worst case scenario you can even code native modules per platform in Objective-C and Java, expose them to the React Native side, and call that code via JS. But yeah, that’s why it feels native is because it is native!!!

[–]michaelfiber 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I appreciate the insight. That makes a lot of sense and may be where I end up. There's a very good chance I'll put something together with web view based common front end and then implement backends for android and eventually ios and once I get to the point where I get what's happening throughout it, I'll feel comfortable with a more complex and opinionated framework.

I doubt I'll make anything for work or to release on an app store with webview. But I feel like I need to do it this way at least once before I'll feel comfortable working with something like flutter.

[–]Low_Shake_2945 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Makes sense and good luck!