Facebook built the React JavaScript library so its engineering team could build interfaces for iOS, Android, and web with the same code. Now it’s giving that development super power to everyone by open sourcing the final part of the React trilogy, React Native For Android.
Facebook open sourced React in 2013 and React Native at its F8 conference earlier this year, but the version for Android means engineers trained on React will be able to build for every major platform. That could mean startups and big tech companies alike could get by with fewer engineers or worry less about hiring ones specifically versed in iOS or Android — two very different codebases. That in turn could help teams develop new features faster, and reduce the lag time between iOS releases and their ports to Android.
Facebook made the announcement of it open sourcing React Native For Android today at its annual @Scale conference. 1,800 execs and engineers from Facebook, Twitter, Google, Box, Pinterest, Microsoft and more came together to collaborate on how to bolster their engineering and infrastructure. Combined, the companies in attendance have contributed to over 4500 open source projects.
Why Open Source?
You might wonder why Facebook would give away such a powerful technology like React when it could keep it to itself and gain an engineering advantage over its social competitors. Facebook engineering manager Tom Occhino gave three big reasons:
Facebook open sourced React in 2013 and React Native at its F8 conference earlier this year, but the version for Android means engineers trained on React will be able to build for every major platform. That could mean startups and big tech companies alike could get by with fewer engineers or worry less about hiring ones specifically versed in iOS or Android — two very different codebases. That in turn could help teams develop new features faster, and reduce the lag time between iOS releases and their ports to Android.
Facebook made the announcement of it open sourcing React Native For Android today at its annual @Scale conference. 1,800 execs and engineers from Facebook, Twitter, Google, Box, Pinterest, Microsoft and more came together to collaborate on how to bolster their engineering and infrastructure. Combined, the companies in attendance have contributed to over 4500 open source projects.
Why Open Source?
You might wonder why Facebook would give away such a powerful technology like React when it could keep it to itself and gain an engineering advantage over its social competitors. Facebook engineering manager Tom Occhino gave three big reasons:
- Community Contributions - “We’ve gotten really meaningful contributions from the community, from features to bug hunting.”
- Recruiting - “People are really interested to learn about the technology that powers something as big as Facebook. People really are excited to join the teams that build that stuff.”
- Engineer Onboarding - “It gives engineer that joins Facebook a headstart because they already understand our frameworks.”
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