Build native iOS and Android apps from a single codebase with NativeScript. NativeScript is a open-source cross-platform framework dedicated to native mobile development.

“As many companies are adopting more modernized and digital strategies, developers are looking for more ways to save time and developer apps across multiple platforms,” said Dan Wilson, NativeScript product marketing manager for Progress. “NativeScript allows developers to write just one app that works on every platform. Developers can jumpstart development by leveraging open-source code from NPM, Android Arsenal and CocoaPods.”

The framework features native UX, native performance, native UI components, the ability to use existing native UI libraries, cross-platform UI abstractions, shared business logic and data models, CocoaPods and Gradle support, code encryption and security, and integration with Angular 2.0 and TypeScript.

The team recently announced NativeScript 1.7, which included full integration with VS Code editors and debugging for iOS/Android on Mac and Windows, the Angular 2 SDK alpha release, and the first preview of the Windows Runtime for NativeScript. NativeScript 1.8 is expected to be released in May and provide new UI component, the beta 2 release of Angular 2.0 SDK, and performance optimizations in Android.

“NativeScript is designed to be very familiar to developers comfortable with Web technologies such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript, minimizing the learning curve for Web developers interested in building mobile apps,” said Wilson. “Unlike hybrid development approaches for cross platform development like Apache Cordova and PhoneGap, NativeScript offers 0-day, direct access to native platform APIs and user interface components—resulting in apps with native-like performance and user experience.

Top 5 trending projects on GitHub this week
#1. AlphaGo: A replication/reference implementation of DeepMind’s 2016 Nature publication: “Mastering the game of Go with deep neural networks and tree search.”

#2. FreeCodeCamp: If you haven’t checked out this GitHub project yet, what are you waiting for? It has been trending for months.

#3. Neural Doodle: An implementation of Semantic Style Transfer.

#4. Serious Engine: A repository containing the source code for Serious Engine version 1.10, a game developed by Croteam.

#5. Tiny Renderer: How OpenGL works: software renderer in 500 lines of code.