Day 1: React Native in #30days
Part of my goals for the year 2020 is to add mobile development to my skill set and produce more tech content regularly. And as a way of challenging myself, I have decided to put into writing the knowledge gained each day in my journey in becoming a mobile developer. I have dubbed this journey React Native in 30 days. By dedicating at least two(2) hours a day, I seek to grab the fundamentals needed to start building mobile applications.
Today being the first day of my journey, I will touch on why I choose react-native, to begin with, who should use react-native and some resources I have found that might help whoever that wants to follow suit.
React Native
React native is a library developed by Facebook to build truly native mobile applications for both the android and iOS platforms. React native provides a core set of native components like the View, Text, and Image that map directly to a platform’s native UI building blocks without compromising on the user’s experience.
This means that applications built with react native will feel the same as the ones built for native iOS and native Android platforms using specific programming languages such as Swift or Objective C and Java or Kotlin respectively. Hence, making it native.
Pros of using React Native
Using react native as a tool comes with various benefits for various users.
The developer
The react native library makes it possible for developers to write code once and run anywhere. With some javascript background, one can develop for both the android and iOS platforms. The library helps to lift the burden of having to learn two separate languages in other to build an application that runs on either the iOS or Android platforms.
The companies/startups
Startups especially have embraced the react-native library as a key tool for developing their mobile apps. Using a cross-platform tool like react-native helps to reduce the cost of hiring the services of two developers.
Thus, hiring a developer who has skills in building android applications with Java or Kotlin and the other who has the skills to build iOS applications using Swift or Objective C.
Who should use React Native?
One should have some JavaScript background before jumping on learning react-native to reduce the frustrations one might face through their learning journey. This is because React native uses most of the modern JavaScript (ES6) features in its syntax. Some of these are arrow functions, classes, imports/exports, spread operators, let and const, destructuring, etc.
Also, react-native is a great choice for developers already familiar with React(a library for building user interfaces for the web). React-native is built off the React library, hence it has most functionality implemented in react such as class components, functional components, state, props, react-hooks, etc.
Resources
If by any chance you decide to pick up React Native as a tool, below are some resources I will recommend:
- React-native documentation: https://facebook.github.io/react-native/
- You can also check out these channels on YouTube as well:
- Net ninja
- Academind
- CS50
Thanks for your time and please feel free to share your feedback and suggestions in the comments below.
