> I know the chromium engine is a resource hog, but the scalability/mix between platforms makes it worth it.
Worth it for some. Personally, I refuse to use any Electron apps because they have a highly non-native-feeling UX and because they're resource hogs.
This announcement excites me, because React Native is likely to be an improvement on both counts.
The UX still won't be quite as native-feeling as a single-platform app designed for that platform's unique idioms – but as long as it uses native controls under the hood, that's still 10x better than Electron in my book.
And even without the bloat of Chromium, an app written in JS is still likely to be slower than one written in, say, C++ or Rust – but most GUIs don't really need that level of performance. And at least on macOS, the competition is not C++ or Rust but Objective-C and Swift, which are both slower, more on par with JS in terms of performance.
It might feel native on platforms where 'native' doesn't mean anything (Windows, Linux), but the only native thing about it on macOS is the fact it has proper global menu bars — which is something provided by Electron for free.
"When I use an editor, I don't want eight extra KILOBYTES of worthless help screens and cursor positioning code! I just want an EDitor!! Not a 'viitor'. Not a 'emacsitor'. Those aren't even WORDS!!!! ED! ED! ED IS THE STANDARD!!!"
Worth it for some. Personally, I refuse to use any Electron apps because they have a highly non-native-feeling UX and because they're resource hogs.
This announcement excites me, because React Native is likely to be an improvement on both counts.
The UX still won't be quite as native-feeling as a single-platform app designed for that platform's unique idioms – but as long as it uses native controls under the hood, that's still 10x better than Electron in my book.
And even without the bloat of Chromium, an app written in JS is still likely to be slower than one written in, say, C++ or Rust – but most GUIs don't really need that level of performance. And at least on macOS, the competition is not C++ or Rust but Objective-C and Swift, which are both slower, more on par with JS in terms of performance.