Re:The Failed Promise of Web Components
by brundolf on Wednesday September 30, 2020 @02:54PM
(#24642292)
> In the “truckload of dependencies” they fail to ask why those dependencies are really there, and in that required JS they fail to ask why its really needed
Yes, this is what I meant when I said the post is too snarky, but I don't think it's fair to take that as representative of all "webcomponents supporters". That JS exists to fill a gap left by the platform, and it's a gap that should be filled by the platform, but it's also a gap that isn't filled by the platform.
> I actually hold the opinion that it was never even a good idea, because it’s simply the wrong abstraction layer to be extending on
I disagree. HTML is a profoundly intuitive and accessible standard which reaches far outside the normal bounds of software developers. This is evidenced by the thriving diversity the web has experienced (before everything moved to closed platforms, that is). For static content it already provides an exceptional balance between expressiveness and accessibility, and the dream of web components was to bring that over to apps as well. And I really do think that idea is still a good one.
Yes, this is what I meant when I said the post is too snarky, but I don't think it's fair to take that as representative of all "webcomponents supporters". That JS exists to fill a gap left by the platform, and it's a gap that should be filled by the platform, but it's also a gap that isn't filled by the platform.
> I actually hold the opinion that it was never even a good idea, because it’s simply the wrong abstraction layer to be extending on
I disagree. HTML is a profoundly intuitive and accessible standard which reaches far outside the normal bounds of software developers. This is evidenced by the thriving diversity the web has experienced (before everything moved to closed platforms, that is). For static content it already provides an exceptional balance between expressiveness and accessibility, and the dream of web components was to bring that over to apps as well. And I really do think that idea is still a good one.