Not so locked in any more

A medium-sized technology company recently used a coding agent to rewrite both its legacy iPhone and Android apps in React Native, citing the framework's recent improvements and full coverage of their needs. The decision was made with the understanding that if React Native proves wrong, they can easily port back to native code. This reflects a broader shift noted by Mitchell Hashimoto, where programming languages are no longer a source of lock-in.

This Mitchell Hashimoto quote about Bun migrating from Zig to Rust reminded me of a similar conversation I had at a conference last week. I was talking to someone who worked for a medium sized technology company with a pair of legacy/legendary iPhone and Android apps. They told me they had just completed a coding-agent driven rewrite of both apps to React Native. I asked why they chose that, given that coding agents presumably drive down the cost of maintaining separate iPhone and Android apps. They said that React Native has improved a lot over the past few years and covered everything their apps needed to do. And... if it turned out to be the wrong decision, they could just port back to native in the future. Like Mitchell said: Programming languages used to be LOCK IN, and they're increasingly not so. Tags: react, coding-agents, ai-assisted-programming, generative-ai, ai, llms