Re:Why I don't miss React: a story about using the platform
by ricardobeat on Wednesday May 04, 2022 @06:44AM
(#31258712)
I’m not sure I can even make out what argument you’re trying to make, but let’s go.
Nowhere in the article the author claims web components is a great choice for everything. He works on DevTools, which is not a website, and 100% js already. Seems like a perfectly ok choice.
> be annoyed to write a lot of imperative code to add a modal
I’ve recently added a modal system to a react app using react-aria-modal, and no kidding, it took over 1000 lines of code* to get it working, following their guide to the letter. Later, out of frustration, I reimplemented the same feature using Svelte (which lets you get much closer to plain JS and HTML), with the same features and aria support, in a couple of hours and 10x less code.
> it's inevitable that you write a poor-mans version of React… it came from the real needs and desires of developers
React uses a very specific architecture of VDOM, stateful components, hooks etc. There are plenty of alternatives, including well developed “poor-man’s versions” like Preact, hyperapp or SolidJS.
It seems you’re under the impression React is some kind of universal solution to all frontend apps, developed by “the people”. It’s just a framework, developed at facebook, born from the evolution of their existing server component system. It works, feels nice for small apps, I use it along with a million other people, but it’s not a panacea, and it’s sad that a lot of people simply dismiss everything else before they’ve had a chance to actually understand the trade-offs.
* id say it’s imperative code too - calling hooks in the correct order, passing data from one to another, telling react what the dependencies are, updating and transforming values
Nowhere in the article the author claims web components is a great choice for everything. He works on DevTools, which is not a website, and 100% js already. Seems like a perfectly ok choice.
> be annoyed to write a lot of imperative code to add a modal
I’ve recently added a modal system to a react app using react-aria-modal, and no kidding, it took over 1000 lines of code* to get it working, following their guide to the letter. Later, out of frustration, I reimplemented the same feature using Svelte (which lets you get much closer to plain JS and HTML), with the same features and aria support, in a couple of hours and 10x less code.
> it's inevitable that you write a poor-mans version of React… it came from the real needs and desires of developers
React uses a very specific architecture of VDOM, stateful components, hooks etc. There are plenty of alternatives, including well developed “poor-man’s versions” like Preact, hyperapp or SolidJS.
It seems you’re under the impression React is some kind of universal solution to all frontend apps, developed by “the people”. It’s just a framework, developed at facebook, born from the evolution of their existing server component system. It works, feels nice for small apps, I use it along with a million other people, but it’s not a panacea, and it’s sad that a lot of people simply dismiss everything else before they’ve had a chance to actually understand the trade-offs.
* id say it’s imperative code too - calling hooks in the correct order, passing data from one to another, telling react what the dependencies are, updating and transforming values