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Early Feedback

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NativeScript Insiders

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TJ asked on 18 Jun 2014, 02:57 PM

Hey all.

I've been playing around with NativeScript for a few days and I wanted to share some early feedback.

My biggest complaint is at the moment there is almost no documentation on how to get started. The majority (all?) of the docs are about the library itself, and how to write code that maps to Objective C and Java, but nothing tells you how to download NativeScript, where to run it, and the various other things you need to get a Hello World app up and running.

Eventually I figured out what I needed to know, but it took me a while. For instance, I only figured out that I needed to download companion apps because of the "nativescript:" protocol displayed after I did a build in iOS. I realize that some of this documentation is not present because the project is so new and things are in flux, but in my opinion it's the single most important thing to have documented. You cannot play with the library unless you can figure out how to run it. I fear some insiders and early beta testers might run into this and leave before they get the chance to play.

Similarly, the existing documentation is written from the perspective of someone who is already familiar with native iOS and Android development. Although NativeScript requires some familiarity with the native platforms, I think a good number of developers (most?) will be attracted to NativeScript because it abstracts away the platform-specific details. At the very least I personally have little to no experience with native development, and I was instantly lost.

The existing "Getting Started" documentation is written more like reference material, showing how to replicate Objective C and Java APIs in NativeScript. The problem is when I'm getting started I don't care about that—I want to see how to build an app. Show me how to get Hello World working, where to put the code and how to run it, and then show me how to do something cool so I'm hooked. At the moment I'm sifting through native APIs that I don't want to care about.

On the positive side the companion apps plus LiveSync is awesome. It's absolutely amazing to see changes to native code refreshed live. For the most part LiveSync has worked fine for me, but I did run into one problem. After I build two NativeScript apps, when I scan the second app's QR code, the companion on my device does not update—that is, the first app I built still displays. This only happens on iOS though—Android works fine.

Overall I'm impressed with the functionality, and think this project has a lot of promise, but I would like to see more 101-level documentation to help people get up and running. Keep up the good work—I'm excited to see where this project is heading.