Hello everyone!
I’m very glad to announce the immediate availability of NativeScript version 0.4! All the bits are updated - you can use the CLI tools or AppBuilder cloud environment!
We released major and exciting new functionalities and I believe now is a very good time to start playing with the bits. With this release we are getting closer to the public beta availability in February.2015.
We shipped the first version of the declarative UI support based on XML and now it is very easy to implement a prototype or a proof of concept application. We support now iOS 8.1 and also Android ‘L’ official release.
Earlier our Android runtime was lagging in performance, but now the performance is much much better. It is still not perfect, but we identified areas for improvements and with the next release it will be even better. The performance in iOS is indistinguishable from the native performance. Give them a try and let us know your results for your device!
Now you are able to use 3rd party native libraries both for Android and for iOS applications. The tooling behind this is still not released, but a post with instructions how to accomplish this is coming soon.
Here you can see a detailed list of all the new things we released in 0.4.
Get started
To get started please see this new getting started application available. It is using all the latest goodies and the UI is being done with our XML cross-platform declaration. You can open it directly in AppBuilder and play with the code.
!Important - you need to update the AppBuilder companion apps on your devices, so that they run the latest NativeScript runtimes. The Android version is here, iOS - here.
Feedback
We are looking for feedback on the new XML declarations. Don’t consider it final - this is just the first preview available only for you. We are now working on the data binding syntax and MVVM support.
Opportunities for you
As I mentioned above we are getting closer to public launch. We will have one more release in December and then we will release a public version in the beginning of February. If you want to take the front seat with NativeScript, to partner with us, showcase an app or become a launch partner, please let me know. There are a lot of opportunities for you and we are also for success apps - so just show us on what you are working on!
Best regards,
Valio Stoychev
PS: We are now on twitter - @NativeScript - please follow the team.