The main problem of cross-platform development was solved in mobile frameworks in different ways. The basis of a convenient mobile app is the native components of the graphical user interface. The development of React Native and Flutter caused a revolution. Having the native GUI elements, both frameworks allowed the use of a single codebase. The developers use both frameworks for creation of ecommerce apps, mobile banking, etc. Read more at https://fireart.studio/e-commerce-website-development-company/. Let’s take a closer look at these two frameworks.
React Native
Facebook created its own web library (React) to solve the cross-platform problem. React library uses DOM as the rendering backend. React Native was designed by switching the backend from DOM to native mobile. Components made with React Native will render as native GUI elements on any platform. Layout using native GUI system elements can be challenging, as Android and iOS have different layout systems. Therefore, React Native introduced the Yoga cross-platform layout engine for both mobile platforms.
The Yoga design engine’s syntax is quite similar to the CSS flexbox. The native actions handling concept of React Native is very similar to Apache Cordova. Apache Cordova uses a native bridge via the web view to execute native code from JavaScript. Meanwhile, React Native uses a native bridge via a JavaScript engine because there is no web view anymore. It is obvious that Facebook created React Native to simplify the dynamic GUI-handling logic of its mobile apps.
Flutter
The main benefit of Flutter is that you can create the same visual interface for your apps on any platform. Your app will look identical on Android, iOs, Linux, Windows, macOS, and Web. It is obvious that Google created Flutter to solve its cross-platform development problem. Goodge just needed an easy way to create apps for Android, iOs, and Fuchsia with the same visual interface.
Flutter has its own widgets framework for a cross-platform 2D graphics library called Skia. Skia can run on both Android and iOS platforms. Therefore, any app you develop using the Flutter widgets framework will work on Android and iOs. In addition, Flutter developed Dart libraries for native features. For example, if you want to make your phone vibrate, you can use the vibration Dart library. These Dart libraries usually call native code directly to perform the required tasks.
Hidden problems of Flutter
Flutter is a great choice if you want to have the same visual interface across various platforms. However, it also has disadvantages.
Dart isn’t as widespread as JavaScript, Java, Kotlin, Swift, and Objective-C. Therefore, when choosing Flutter, you should search for Dart specialists or learn this language yourself.
Flutter uses Dart instead of Java and Objective C/Swift. Therefore, there are Dart libraries for native operations. There are official and external. The latter may have limitations and bugs. Therefore, you shouldn’t be surprised if a software tester reports a problem in any of the library dependencies.
The 2D Graphics Library Flutter uses the set of widget means. Reports of a huge number of bugs related to animation on Android/iOS exist.
Hidden problems of React Native
If you need an application with lots of native dynamic content, search for React Native developers for hire. However, it has its drawbacks.
React Native repeats the Flutter scenario. There are JavaScript libraries for processing native operations.
React Native uses a bridge concept (which is a bit similar to Apache Cordova) to run a native code. Of course, you can’t expect JavaScript to gain performance over the native code. In addition, the CPU and hardware requirements of a React Native application is updated.
Learning React Native is a little difficult for people unfamiliar with React. Meanwhile, Flutter gives a simple tree-based design concept, which is simpler than the native approach.
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