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Gatsby – A Static Site Generator for React

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Re: Gatsby – A Static Site Generator for React

#11

Post by snake_case »

I created a very basic react static site generator called rovr [0]. It was an experiment I started about a year ago to learn more about react... and I also wanted to create something similar to how Jekyll works. You can mix html, markdown, and react components to create pages and layouts.

Anyway, I don't plan on supporting it... just an experiment. I should probably update the readme to state that.

While developing rovr, I was also learning ES6 at the same time. If you have any opinions on the code, please let me know!

I have checked out Gatsby before though, and it looks like a great project with many more features than rovr. Although I'm happy with Jekyll, I may try this out again in the future.

[0]: https://github.com/jakedeichert/rovr

Re: Gatsby – A Static Site Generator for React

#12

Post by spdustin »

enraged_camel wrote: post #10
jamra wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not just have HTML generated at some earlier time? It's faster, can be cached, and does the same thing. I'm a little confused about no page transitions. I don't know why that is a problem that needs solving. Also hot reloading.

It comes down to user experience. There's a categorical difference between having to do regular transitions and full-page reloads, and no page transitions and hot reloading. The latter is more overhead from an initial bandwidth and processing perspective, but results in zero-latency interactions, which can be important. Is a JS framework the best way to achieve that? Maybe, maybe not. There are many factors to consid…

I dunno...

Reloading 10K of (likely cached in memory and compressed by server) HTML to load a new page of HTML when a user clicks a link, with a browser that respects caching headers and so doesn't bother reloading content supporting images/UI element sprite sheets/CSS/JavaScript is never the wrong thing to do with "static" sites. In many cases, it's the most right.

Re: Gatsby – A Static Site Generator for React

#13

Post by desireco42 »

I don't really see the point, unless you are using it to prototype react app, in which case it would make sense.

I did find some really interesting services when I was looking through the reference list, Syncano in particular.

I will stick to Middleman, I can always use React there.

Re: Gatsby – A Static Site Generator for React

#14

Post by spdustin »

It's clever. It's well done. I'm not the audience, though. I love React for, you know, "Reactive UI", the "V" of an "MVC" app, but when creating the site's content store (the "static API backend") is a "build" time event, I don't feel that there is anything to "react" to.

Re: Gatsby – A Static Site Generator for React

#15

Post by wesleytodd »

tptacek wrote: post #5

Can someone make a case for React on static blog sites? How is this a net win versus plain 'ol HTML? For fancy marketing sites I get it immediately, I guess.

I think it is more about how you structure your components for development. React provides a nice modular approach using composition, which is just enjoyable to write. With static html files you need to come up with a good composition approach, forcing you to make decisions on how you want to do that.

Secondly, it also allows you to progressively enhance the static site easily if you want to in the future.

Re: Gatsby – A Static Site Generator for React

#20

Post by peternicky »

cjjuice wrote: post #19

Over-engineering at it's finest. React is great for some applications, IMO this is not one of them. To me it just over complicates things for minimal gain.

Did you even read the docs for this project? In my opinion, this pulls together different tools that improve developer experience dramatically. For me personally, hot reloading is quite useful.
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