Support for Linux

[nrydevopswatch]

Background:
I am a React full stack dev currently working with Grommet UI and would really like to use React Sketchapp for UI/UX. However, I do not have access to an OS X system. Most users are on Windows, OS X and Linux (in that order) but Linux and OS X are less than 10% of all computer users. Windows is closer to 90% but as developers most of us use Linux. Personally I work in Linux for almost everything including desktop and server. I would expect any Node.js based app to be able to run seamlessly across Windows, OS X and Linux the same.

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Requesting a new feature

Proposal/Feature-request:
I would like to request a feature to have the ability to run React Sketch.app on Linux. I feel that most developers will then have access to either OS X and or at least Linux like myself. If not possible with Node directly, I would like to propose an Electron based version.

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Reporting a bug or issue (not really a bug, but more of a feature request)

Expected behavior:
Is to run on Linux following npm install and then npm run render

Observed behavior:

git clone https://github.com/airbnb/react-sketchapp.git

cd react-sketchapp/examples/basic-setup && npm install

Works with no issues as expected

nrydevops@cloudshell:~/react-sketchapp (nrydevops)$ npm run render
npm ERR! missing script: render

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /home/nrydevops/.npm/_logs/2019-12-30T21_17_51_020Z-debug.log

additional logging:

0 info it worked if it ends with ok
1 verbose cli [ '/usr/bin/node', '/usr/bin/npm', 'run', 'render' ]
2 info using [email protected]
3 info using [email protected]
4 verbose stack Error: missing script: render
4 verbose stack     at run (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/run-script.js:155:19)
4 verbose stack     at /usr/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/run-script.js:63:5
4 verbose stack     at /usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/read-package-json/read-json.js:116:5
4 verbose stack     at /usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/read-package-json/read-json.js:436:5
4 verbose stack     at checkBinReferences_ (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/read-package-json/read-json.js:391:45)
4 verbose stack     at final (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/read-package-json/read-json.js:434:3)
4 verbose stack     at then (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/read-package-json/read-json.js:161:5)
4 verbose stack     at /usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/read-package-json/read-json.js:382:12
4 verbose stack     at /usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/graceful-fs/graceful-fs.js:115:16
4 verbose stack     at FSReqCallback.readFileAfterClose [as oncomplete] (internal/fs/read_file_context.js:61:3)
5 verbose cwd /home/nrydevops/react-sketchapp
6 verbose Linux 4.19.72+
7 verbose argv "/usr/bin/node" "/usr/bin/npm" "run" "render"
8 verbose node v12.14.0
9 verbose npm  v6.13.4
10 error missing script: render
11 verbose exit [ 1, true ]

Sketch version:
latest as of December 30, 2019

[mathieudutour]

I would expect any Node.js based app to be able to run seamlessly across Windows, OS X and Linux the same

I'd say it depends what the app is doing, isn't it?

The issue with running react-sketchapp on Linux is those 2 methods: https://github.com/Lona/node-sketch-bridge

If you can create a platform agnostic version of them, I'd be happy to merge it.

[nrydevopswatch]

@mathieudutour Thanks for the reply. What is the Sketch app doing on OS X that is specific to Apple OS?

Is Sketch app using Apple Metal? Is that why it is not cross platform agnostic?

[mathieudutour]

Sketch is an macOS only app. This project is not associated with the company Sketch.
If you’d like to ask for a feature request to support other platforms, feel free to contact them specifically.

For this particular project, follow the link above to see what are the macOS specific API we need

[nrydevopswatch]

I created this issue to ask for Linux support for React Sketchapp. I work on Linux most of the time and do not currently have access to a Mac computer. I'm not sure if I have capacity to create this capability.

[mathieudutour]

Right. I don’t have the bandwidth to work on that now, and it’s pretty low priority for me so I added the “help wanted” label. I’d be happy to merge a PR.

[nrydevopswatch]

@mathieudutour Thanks! I'm going to work on getting a macOS computer setup so I can work with React Sketchapp and become more familiar with it. I figure this way I can better understand the functionality and maybe help with this technical enhancement request.

[macintoshhelper]

Hi, I think needing a Mac will be required for the foreseeable future to integrate React with design tooling, I would recommend getting a Mac Mini, or to use a VM (which as you mention, should be on Mac hardware or server for it to be licensed). (A lot of musicians/filmmakers are locked to the Mac ecosystem also :/ ). Migrating programs away from Objective C would be a lot of work – not really anything to do with the Metal API; there's more chance of having a Sketch app built for iPad OS, with the iPad/Mac ecosystem merge, I'd say, especially as macOS migrates away from x86.

I've looked into integrating React with Adobe XD (for cross-platform purposes). The XD API is too restrictive and closed for now, and can't be easily run in the cloud (or on Linux) due to the closed file format.

I believe https://github.com/amzn/sketch-constructor is cross platform, would need to integrate it together with react-sketchapp and a web viewer though.

What you could do, is use GitHub Actions (or another CI with a macOS VM) to automatically generate a Sketch library with react-sketchapp, and use something like Storybooks for design/dev.

[nrydevopswatch]

Okay...back to the discussion at hand! I have done a lot with cloud since the early days of "cloud." As the founder of www.revuprender.com
My only other question at this point; Why not make this tool cloud based? What is stopping you as the main dev @mathieudutour from making it into something like VS Code Server?

[mathieudutour]

see my first answer