Well, where to start? I guess I’m really disappointed with where we’re at with Ionic4 [.0.0-beta.13].
Let me start by saying, I get it, this is Beta only (still) and all kinds of things are expected to happen, sort of. Not sure that should still be the case with all hype and hysteria around Ionic4 and the massively degrading support for v3 issues.
Disclaimer:
Unfortunately I can’t share any screenshots/ani-gifs to document my findings (copyright/IP) but I may recreate situations to share
Anyway, I started migrating one of our larger Ionic3 apps a couple weeks back, originally expecting - mostly encouraged by articles saying migration is anything between a 2-3 day job a week max - to only work on this for 2 weeks max and here I am having conquered only 35-40% roughly.
Why? Mostly bc it’s still buggy is hell in all kinds of places and requires workarounds to get all the previous features in, it does offer though a few really nice new changes (router, yay!).
Migrating a highly custom app is a pain in the a** - the CSS alone. While I start to like the concept of proper encapsulation, CSS vars are a true pain. Too many are missing for core components and the ones there are there sometimes are buried and inaccessible. Btw I still believe that adding all this “junk” (sorry) to the DOM must slow it down incredibly.
It gets worse though: while local development in Chrome works OK’ish (aside from aforementioned bugs, workarounds, troubleshooting via severe DOM traversing) when deploying it in either iOS Sim or directly onto an iPhone, app performance is UNBELIEVABLY BAD:
- Slow DOM updates
- Even slower navigation/interaction
- CSS variables must get mixed up (Safari or build --prod issue?!?)
- => different (wrong) colors rendered on Safari (Chrome is more consistent)
- UI artifact issues (showing tugged away z-indexed elements suddenly on top of other)
and most annoyingly:
- white flashes on Safari (iOS Sim/Safari/device) when interacting with the DOM and screen parts “jumping around”
Bottom line, this is no where close to what I was hoping to find at this time in terms of basics being in place (quality) and ability to start using this in serious projects…ya, I know, it’s beta. Still.
Sorry for the rant - but having so spent soo much time on Ionic the last years I felt I needed to vent…a little bit.
Lastly, I totally appreciate all the work&effort the team is putting in! Don’t take this as a back stab, but some personal feedback on the overall situation.
Not sure how many of you can relate, fingers crossed v4 will be as solid as v3. Soon 
EDIT: mostly sp