v0.64.0 Discussion

[elicwhite]

This release has not happened yet. This issue is for us to start tracking remaining work and coordinating with our relevant partner teams around the timing of the release

Highlighted Changes

• TBD (Someone needs to look through the changelog)
• Hermes opt-in iOS
• Inline requires enabled by default
• new profile-hermes CLI command for converting Hermes tracing profile to Chrome format
• Hermes with Proxy support (will now support react-native-firebase, mobx)
• React 17

Work Required

• Changelog
• Update documentation [@Simek]
• Blog post [@grabbou]
• feat: Enable Hermes to work on iOS facebook/react-native#29914
• React 17 support (landed)
• [iOS] Fix cannot working Modal's onDismiss. facebook/react-native#29882
• Fix App Bundle/Release build missing index.android.bundle with gradle plugin 4.1.0+/gradle 6.5 facebook/react-native#30177
• facebook/react-native@a7c1c5a
• Migrate warnings in index.js to point to new lean core repos (chore: updated url of deprecated modules facebook/react-native#30422)
• The hermes-engine pod has no version constraints specified, which should probably happen in the React-Core.podspec file and lock it with similar version constraints as the one applied to the Android version in package.json. Fixed by fix: pin hermes-engine to 0.7.x facebook/react-native#30432
• The newly introduced codegen invocation step in the iOS Podfile is failing, as the dependencies of the react-native-codegen package have not been installed. See output here. In progress PR here Integrate Native Module codegen into Xcode build pipeline facebook/react-native#30449
• Trying to build a newly created Android app fails when checking the dynamic libraries for duplicate classes. See output here. Fixed by include android in npm package facebook/react-native#30452
• [Not a RC blocker] After updating to Xcode 12 I get The linked library 'libPods-*****.a' is missing one or more architectures required by this target: arm64. facebook/react-native#29984
• [Not a RC blocker] The new CLI has a minor regression when using a local template dir, now you need to specify the file:// protocol to resolve that [@grabbou]
• [Not a RC blocker] There are no instructions in the iOS Podfile template about how to enable Hermes [@grabbou]
• [Not a RC blocker] Decide whether Integrate Native Module codegen into Xcode build pipeline facebook/react-native#30449 is required for 0.64-stable to be released
• [Not a RC blocker] When clicking "Open Debugger" on iOS with Hermes and not having Flipper installed, nothing happens. Perhaps a warning / alert or an appropriate log in the CLI would be helpful to instruct those that don't have Flipper installed on the next steps.

Hopeful Dates

We can never commit to the dates involved in a release as many things are out of our control. However, we are thinking about these rough dates for this release.

• Cut the release branch: November 2nd-ish
• Publish as Stable: November 9th-ish

[grabbou]

Thank you! 🙏 I am about to get a deep dive into the CLI and prepare it for the next release. Will be back here with some features/updates/insights as that happens later this week.

[rachelnabors]

I want to thank @Simek for volunteering to handle updating the documentation with this release. Updating the API references at the start of the year increased learner satisfaction with the documentation by 70% (woohoo!).But they're very easy to let slide release over release! Until we have found a solid automation solution, it will be up to us to be meticulous and vigilant and keep them up to date with every release :)

[Simek]

The stub project for the docs release is here: https://github.com/facebook/react-native-website/projects/1

I have only skimmed over the changeset draft from this repository #205. I'm waiting for the official changelog in this thread, to start posting issues and implementing the necessary changes.

[gedeagas]

I will be happy to help you with the docs @Simek 💖

[elicwhite]

I bumped the dates a week, the branch didn't get cut yesterday

[thymikee]

RN CLI recently released a minor version with profile-hermes command: react-native-community/cli#1246. I think it's worth featuring in the release, even though it's backwards compatible and available in 0.63

[elicwhite]

Bumping by another week. React Native EU and the US holiday kept things from moving as we hoped

[saphal1998]

@Simek, I'm also dropping a reference to the react-native-website PR here. I think it can be useful while writing docs for this release.

[mrousavy]

• Hermes with Proxy support (will now support react-native-firebase)

What exactly does that mean?

[Bardiamist]

@mrousavy Now Hermes don't support js Proxy. So you can't use some packages from react-native-firebase which using Proxy.

[mikehardy]

• Hermes with Proxy support (will now support react-native-firebase)

What exactly does that mean?

@mrousavy / @Bardiamist

👋 react-native-firebase maintainer here :-), it is our understanding that our package @react-native-firebase/database did not work with Hermes until recently as it required Proxy support. If Hermes supports Proxy now, then the last "not-Hermes-compatible" module for react-native-firebase should work. Success reports welcome of course (we have a few already)

Not sure if this is worth a by-name callout in the release notes or not (not my domain...) but those are the facts as I know them

Cheers

[grabbou]

We need to cherry-pick facebook/react-native#29477 for this release and possibly 0.63 as well. It reverts an annoying regression that was introduced around bundling in release mode. We will provide a better fix later.

CC: @hramos (would be great if the PR shipped to master before that)

[Simek]

Can PushNotificationIOS library be removed from the core in this release? Are there any contraindications?

It has been deprecated ~1,5 years ago (https://github.com/facebook/react-native/blame/master/index.js#L386) and it is rarely updated since then. Lately, due to deprecations on the Apple side, it is causing some confusion and issues (facebook/react-native#26199).

CC: @grabbou