So far development of fuse seems to be UI focused at the moment (as i have read here and there), and that’s cool. But we all know that access to NATIVE API is really really important to most Mobile Dev projects.
What I liked about NativeScript is its direct API access via plain JavaScript which is really really goood.
Will fuse ever have this feature soon? I think this would be a make or break thing if Fuse is pitted against NativeScript
Also, seems Fuse is still in deep Beta stage… when will the first release be? and Is it safe/ok already to use Fuse for commercial app? I ask because I have I need to develop an Android App for my webservice (mostly data driven and data management only via App, no hardware stuff yet) - deadline is in 2 weeks. LoL
And lastly, will fuse be always FREE to use w/o limitations? What’s the direction fuse is going in this regard?
What I liked about NativeScript is its direct API access via plain JavaScript which is really really goood. Will fuse ever have this feature soon? I think this would be a make or break thing if Fuse is pitted against NativeScript
First of all, Fuse already has full access to native apis through our Foreign Code feature. This has many important benefits over a JS bridging strategy:
It is much faster
You can reuse and interop with existing native code libraries
You can use native docs, examples and snippets. When using JS bindings to foreign you have to translate all examples and docs into JS.
It can deal with threading-based APIs (which many native APIs require). Remember JS/NS is single threaded, while Fuse is a multithreaded platform.
More importantly, if you are going to write a lot of code against per-platform native APIs, why are you writing JS in the first place? Then you could just as well write Swift or Java, which are the natural languages for the platforms APIs you want to access. These languages have very mature tools, a lot of documentation, examples and community content. Fuse allows you to write your native bits in the native languages, while composing your app with high-level JS and UX markup.
Fuse’s goal is to reduce the need for per-platform code by providing powerful, modern abstractions, not to move native development to a slower, single-threaded language.
That said, there is nothing stopping us or the community from adding native JS bindings to Fuse at some point as a convenience feature, either by generating bindings or even integrating NS’s open source bindings. It is just not a priority at this stage as we find the approach quite limited and in practice offers little value over foreign code.
Also, seems Fuse is still in deep Beta stage… when will the first release be? and Is it safe/ok already to use Fuse for commercial app? I ask because I have I need to develop an Android App for my webservice (mostly data driven and data management only via App, no hardware stuff yet) - deadline is in 2 weeks. LoL
A lot of companies rely on Fuse in commercial projects. We offer premium support programs too, contact@fusetools.com for more information.
Compared to native development tools, all JS-based native platforms on the market so far are young and “beta”, including those who claim to be 1.x or beyond. Beta is just a label to indicate we still have great plans for improving and expanding Fuse.
And lastly, will fuse be always FREE to use w/o limitations? What’s the direction fuse is going in this regard?
Yes, the components of Fuse currently in beta will remain free. We will launch additional tools and services on top however which may come under a different license.
Thanks very much for taking the time to respond/clarfiy all these things.
And yah, I get it now. That Foreign Code feature/approach does make a lot of sense. I guess one has to shift his way of thinking and align it with the strategy being implemented.
I’m glad to be on board the Fuse rocket ship. More power to you guys!
