The evolution of mobile cross platform technology

These years of rapid development of mobile terminals , With the efficiency of R & D 、 Demands for dynamic capabilities are increasing , Cross platform technologies are springing up in endlessly . that , In this article, we will share with you the evolution of mobile cross platform technology . First, let's see why we need cross platform technology ？

Why cross platform technology is needed ？

• On the one hand, with the rapid development of mobile Internet , The competition between companies is becoming more and more fierce , How to quickly implement the business 、 Quick trial and error , Become a matter of concern .
• On the other hand , Improve R & D Efficiency 、 Shorten R & D cycle , Ensure fast trial and error of products and rapid iteration of new functions , Let new products and new functions reach the same destination at a faster speed Android、iOS And other multi-end users are the consistent demands of today's enterprises .

as everyone knows ,Android The application needs to adopt Java/Kotlin To write the ,iOS The application needs to adopt Objective-C/Swift To write the ,Web Need end use HTML /CSS/JavaScript To write the . This leads to the need to develop applications that support multiple ends , Each end needs independent research and development 、 test , Until it goes online , And subsequent maintenance work , The workload doubled , It is bound to prolong the R & D cycle , Slow down the pace of product iteration .

In order to solve the problem that multiple terminals need to be developed independently , Cross platform technology came into being , Internet companies at home and abroad have invested a lot of manpower for this , So there are various cross platform technology frameworks .

Overview of cross platform framework development

Stone Age

There is no corresponding cross platform development framework in this period , Developers use the most primitive HTML + CSS + JS The way of application development .

HTML

Time ：1993

HTML Is a standard markup language for creating web pages .HTML + CSS + JS This combination is the most successful example of cross platform development in history .

The biggest problem in this period is the development experience , You can't imagine developing a feature , The code should fit N Different versions of browsers .
This is in iOS It's OK on the Internet , stay Android Because of its fragmentation , It makes the development and adaptation cost very high ; Small partners with front-end development experience will have deep feelings .

Hybrid period

At the beginning of this period, some cross platform development frameworks have been developed , Typically there are ：Cordova、Ionic.

Cordova

Time ：2009

Cordova The predecessor was PhoneGap, It can be used HTML, CSS & JS For mobile App Development .

Ionic

Time ：2013

Ionic Is based on AngularJS and Cordova Build a lightweight mobile phone UI library , Fast speed , Interface modernization 、 Beautiful and so on .

Although in Hybrid period , The development experience has improved ; however APP The actual running performance and fluency are similar to those of native APP Still can't compare .
So? , Many companies and developers began to think about how to give consideration to both the development experience and improvement APP Operation performance of . Actually , restriction Hybrid The main factors of application performance are ：

• Network transmission speed , Cause front-end data presentation delay （css,js And so on ）;
• webview Container brings restrictions and JavaScript The single thread ;

Browser parse rendering DOM Tree and CSS Tree, Parsing performed JavaScript, Almost all operations are carried out in the main thread .

When you realize that Hybrid After the performance bottleneck of the application , We might as well have a bold imagination ：

Is it possible to combine business code with UI use JS+CSS To achieve , The rendering is left to the primitive , In this way, you can get rid of webview The bondage of , Achieve both development experience and performance .

From the other side of the ocean FB Our engineers have done it , They call this plan React Native;React refer to React.js A front-end development framework , adopt JS+CSS Development ; Add a Native There are two main meanings ：

• these "JS+CSS" It will eventually be interpreted as a native control ;
• with Native Performance experience ;

RN The appearance of the mobile terminal marks the entry of cross platform development OEM period .

Tell us from this case ： As an engineer, never limit your imagination ; Be able to make bold assumptions , If it happens .

OEM period

During this period, the framework will be DSL Encapsulation of layers ,UI It will eventually be rendered as Android/iOS Native controls .

React Native

Time ：2015

React Native yes Facebook The open source set is based on React Cross platform development framework for . Its appearance marks the entry of cross platform development framework OEM Time .

• RN Open source has set off a domestic upsurge of cross platform development , Some large domestic Internet companies have invested RN Camps ;
• Powerful manufacturers have also begun to respond to RN Make some magic changes , So that it can adapt to the business of its own company ; The representative one is Ali's Weex;
• Of course, many large factories are based on RN Did some encapsulation , But there's no open source , So you may not know , such as ： Ctrip's CRN, It's inside Ctrip RN;

Weex

Time ：2016

Weex It is a popular set of Alibaba open source Web Develop experience to develop high-performance native application framework .

• Weex But it's domestic RN, It and RN The biggest difference is that it naturally supports bundle Split , One page one JS bundle It is more suitable for domestic enterprises ;
• in addition ,Weex Support Vue.js and Rax Framework development ,Rax It's Alibaba's set based on React The lightness of the agreement , High performance , Easy to use front-end development framework ;

It looks like OEM The plan of the period is perfect , But there are still many problems ：

• OEM The maintenance cost of the framework itself is high ：
  • Mainly because of these OEM The components provided by the framework depend on the native space , So these Android and iOS Controls are not static , System vendors will do some iterations from time to time , So once you have these iterations
    OEM The components of have to be adapted , This adaptation cost is very high ;
  • in addition , Because these controls finally presented to users are provided by the system manufacturer , and Android and iOS There are also some differences in natural behavior and characteristics , So lead to OEM The framework wants to smooth out the differences between these systems , Not only the cost is high, but also some are simply impossible
    , such as ：RN A date selection component of , More than one friend asked me , Why? RN The date selection component of Android and iOS The effect of running on is so different .
• The contradiction between focusing on platform features and products' pursuit of consistent experience ：
  • OEM The framework is more platform oriented , Actually " Heavy platform characteristics " This sentence comes from RN Team , It can be seen that RN The team announced that RN The heavy platform feature of is helpless ;
  • because RN The characteristics of the framework itself limit that it has to pay attention to the platform characteristics , This leads to the contradiction between it and the consistent experience expected by most products on different platforms ; There are many teams and companies to solve this contradiction , It has to be solved through custom components , The cost of custom components is high , You need someone with native development experience Android and iOS Students can do it ;

Self rendering period

In this period, the framework is no longer done OEM Porter of period control , But start a new stove , I am not only responsible for the top UI Encapsulation , It is also responsible for rendering the underlying interface .

Flutter

Time ：2017

Flutter Is a cross platform development kit developed by Google , Used to Android、iOS、 Windows、Mac、Linux、Google Fuchsia Development and application .

• My time mark here is 17 year ,17 Year is not the time when it was really born ,17 It is a year that is well known by the public ;
• stay 《 Mobile end architect growth system course 》 Mentioned in , If you go back Flutter The origin of can be reached 2014 year , At that time it was called Sky,Sky It was a development code at that time ; stay 2015 It was renamed Flutter;
• stay 2017 year Google I/O At the conference ,Google Officially announced to the outside world Flutter, This is the time Flutter Just officially came into everyone's vision ;
• Flutter differ OEM The framework of the period is , It uses Dart To realize the upper layer UI, Then the bottom layer is based on Skia To render , And get rid of it Android and iOS The shackles of traditional controls ;

Reference resources

• Mobile end architect

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