Comment by niftylettuce | Hacker News Reader

Comment by niftylettuce | Hacker News Reader

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As a HEAVILY involved React Native developer, I am strongly suggesting you to NOT use Deco Software. It's pointless. Get Vim or Atom editor if you want to build a React Native app. There are CLI tools anyways to make your life easier. Your hardest battle will be you needing to afford a new computer to be able to run both the iOS simulator and Android simulator (or Genymotion) all at the same time. HMR reloading is already in RN v0.18+ I believe. I'm on 0.20 and it's AWESOME. We even have pull to refresh in now. The RN docs are FINE. Don't use this IDE. Again, don't use it!!! You're better off learning on your own with GitHub. The environment changes so much, because its so new, and things break all the time, that you'll be left in the dust because of this IDE. Just look at my GitHub activity feed to see all the issues that spring up, not to mention all the ones I don't bother documenting because I want to keep moving so fast.

I disagree. This seems to strike a good balance between ease of use and power. It offers a visual tool for layout while still placing the code front and center.

>It's pointless

No, it's not. Prototyping.

Here's how you prototype:

npm install -g react-native

react-native init myproject

cd myproject

# open xcode simulator or android emulator

# make changes to index.ios.js and read the damn docs

# otherwise you end up dragging slides and dragging drop

# having no idea what actually goes on behind the scenes

# when if you learned what went on behind the scenes

# you could code so so much faster and have so much more control

so i need to learn IOS and Android development to learn what's going on behind the scenes as well? Ideally right? But that's definitely not a prerequisite of building RN apps. Abstractions are great if its done well..

It is so sad to see people on Hacker News with so much potential, but take the easy route out, and end up with nothing.

Why the bad karma? Look, there are people that like Emacs (like me) and there are people, especially designers, that like drag-and-drop. Even if all it accomplishes is rapid prototyping, there is great value in closing the gap between UXPin and Emacs.

Do you also tell Photoshop users that they should be using HTML/CSS for their website mockups?

Upvoted as this comment at least attempts to be informative.

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