Getting started with React Native for Mac

As we all know that Facebook is the creator of react native, which lets you build apps using Javascript for both iOS and Android.

Tools and development environment?

1. Xcode

Do you wanna build apps for iOS as well? Then please go ahead with the Xcode installation from the app store. Hey! Again I support only for Mac. Sadly no support for Windows, Linux and other platforms.

2. Brew

Brewing coffee even takes some time but installing or updating apps are easy with Brew. Yeah! It provides an easy option to install softwares, packages, SDK’s and libraries using simple commands on iTerm.

For example:

brew install mysql — Installs mysql into your mac.

brew update mysql — Updates mysql to latest version.

brew cask install google-chrome — Installs Google chrome.

3. Node/NPM

Oooh! Here comes the main warrior who actually helps to make Javascript work outside the browser environment and NPM manages the dependencies.

Let’s take this ahead and see further to install Node on your machine.

brew install node — This installs node and other related packages to your Mac. (Really Brew made it simple!).

It’s time to verify your installation of the node using node -v command from a terminal. It should say v8.8.1 or any versions which is installed.

4. Watchman

Watchman is a tool by Facebook for watching changes in the filesystem. It keeps an eye on the modified changes or updates that are made to particular files.

brew install watchman — This installs watchman to your mac.

5. Editors (Sublime or Atom or Vscode)

Though there are few IDE exists like Deco, the editors like Sublime or Atom provides ample amount of customisation when it comes to Auto suggestion, lint, error correction, etc. I prefer Atom for React Native development. (Not really biased ;-))

6. The React Native CLI

Node comes with npm, which lets you install the React Native command line interface.

Run the following command in a Terminal:

npm install -g react-native-cli

7. Lint/ESLint

This is one of the cool feature with Atom, which lets you know when you’re helpless or stuck while coding by pointing your syntax errors.