preface

I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of mobile application development. Building mobile apps was one of the reasons I wanted to learn how to code. This fascination has lead me down many paths, from Objective-C to jQuery mobile to Cordova and now to React Native.

Because my career has centered around writing JavaScript, I’ve also always been drawn to technologies that increase my efficiency by using my existing skillset, allowing me to do more than just web development. Finding ways to be more efficient has been core to my career when choosing paths to follow and rabbit holes to dive into.

When React Native first landed, I knew that it was going to be something significant. There were already thousands of React and JavaScript developers in the world. React Native gave these developers a way to extend their existing skillset into the realm of mobile application development in a way that Cordova and other options didn’t, and also appealed heavily to React developers who were at the time the most rapidly growing segment of all frontend developers. The framework also delivered a substantial increase in quality of applications that could be built versus other options available in the same space.