At its annual F8 conference, Facebook unveiled several new or revamped user interface (UI) tools. The most notable for Web developers is React Fiber, a completely rewritten version of the React JavaScript framework. The new tool will be backwards compatible with existing React applications but will incorporate the lessons the company has learned after several years of working with React.
The social network has also rewritten Relay, its JavaScript framework for data-intensive applications. The new version, called Relay Modern, “retains the best parts of Relay — colocated data and view definitions, declarative data fetching — while also simplifying the API, adding features, improving performance, and reducing the size of the framework,” the company said.
Facebook also open sourced Litho, a framework for building Android UIs. The company uses Litho for its own Android app. In addition, it unveiled React VR, a version of the React framework intended for building virtual reality apps.