React Native Elements — My Journey through Open Source
I first got involved with Open Source in late 2016 when I was learning how to build React Native apps. I had been developing iOS apps before then, and was aware of the huge open source ecosystems surrounding different technologies but never got the opportunity to create or contribute to an open source project.
So sometime around October 2016, I came up with the idea of creating a RN boilerplate app that uses the best npm packages & comes prepackaged with the most commonly used technologies such as React Redux, Navigation, Vector Icons etc. That was my first ever open source project. You can check it out here.
Since then I have come a long way with respect to Open Source, creating multiple npm packages as well as maintaining React Native Elements, which is the most popular UI library for React Native. Here is a snapshot of my Github profile:
Recently, React Native Elements reached 10,000 🌟 stars on Github which is a major milestone and the only other library to do so (in the React Native ecosystem) is React Navigation. So I took this opportunity to share with everyone a bit about how we got here through a Twitter thread. I have added the tweets below for easy reading. Here we go:
Huge shoutout to Nader Dabit, Binoy Patel, Kyle Roach, Xavier Villelégier and Guillaume Martinez without whom this journey would be incomplete. ❤️
I hope you enjoyed reading this post. Feel free to hit me up if would like to get involved with Open Source projects such as RNE or just get a cup of coffee (online or IRL) and have a conversation. ☕️ 🗯
