Webflow is touted as "the new Dreamweaver". Of course, it's "software as a service", about 3x as expensive as basic web hosting.
Can you self-host Webflow-generated content?
The Return of the 90s Web
11–20 of 357 posts
Re: The Return of the 90s Web
#12I recently watched the "Helvetica" documentary that was posted here a few days ago [0], where they briefly mention "Grunge Typography" [1], a seemingly dead-end branch of typography that, for some strange reason, became pretty popular for a short period of time. After some years however, consensus amongst designers formed that what they've created was a pile of illegible garbage, and realized that there was no other…
I began developing apps the "old-fashioned" way over a year ago. My day job is React but for my side businesses, it's all PWA and Rails. Light React/Vue (depending on my mood) when I need a fine-grained interaction or a slick animation.
Re: The Return of the 90s Web
#13I'm glad this is the case. I've been a Rails developer for close to 10 years now, but 3 or 4 years back I got sucked into the React world. I bought right in and my company quickly adopted the "React on Rails" pattern. Looking back, it was one of the worst professional decisions I've made in my career. Now we're back to server side rendering and StimulusJS on the front-end when needed. Productivity is way up, and developer happiness is way up. With new tools like https://docs.stimulusreflex.com and https://cableready.stimulusreflex.com I'm very excited about what can be accomplished with minimal JS.
(Note: I still think React is an awesome library! I'm sure there are devs that are super productive with it too. It just wasn't the best fit for me and my company)
Re: The Return of the 90s Web
#14Preloading on button-down, nice detail optimization. It's possible that you have to abort that request, but it will be the rare exception. It's my favorite thing I learned today.
See previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23203658
Re: The Return of the 90s Web
#15I can't wait for server-side rendering to take its place in the sun again.
There are many use cases for which a client-side framework like React is eesential.
But I feel the vast majority of use cases on the web would be better off with server-side rendering.
And...
There are issues of ethics here.
You are kidding yourself to an extent when you say that you are building a "client-side web app." It is essentially an application targeted at Google's application platform, Chromium. Sure, React (or whatever) runs on FF and Safari too. For now. Maybe not always. They are already second-class citizens on the web. They will probably be second-class citizens of your client-side app unless your team has the resources to devote equal time and resources to non-Chromium browsers. Unless you work in a large shop, you probably don't.
Server-side rendering is not always the right choice, but I also do see it as a hedge against Google's, well, hegemony.
Re: The Return of the 90s Web
#16Maybe I'm missing something, the article isn't very clear. One of the reasons why we have front end apps pulling from an API is because it allows for interoperability. The same API that serves data to the web browser can serve that data to mobile apps and to third parties as well. The idea of bringing HTML rendering back on to the server just doesn't seem useful to me.
That's if you're making an application, sure, but on the web I view all sorts of sites and most of them are just styled text containers, maybe with an optional way to mutate things. HN, Reddit, News, recipes, forums, galleries, these are things I regularly consume that don't need APIs to return content. For applications, like Facebook, it's understandable, but if you don't spend all of your time in Social Media, then you probably are not really using an application.
Re: The Return of the 90s Web
#17This is a legitimate question apropos of OP‘s web ring: Who qualifies as a nerd of the 90s? Is it nerds born in the 90s or people who were nerds during the 90s?
Re: The Return of the 90s Web
#18I can't wait for server-side rendering to take its place in the sun again. There are many use cases for which a client-side framework like React is eesential. But I feel the vast majority of use cases on the web would be better off with server-side rendering. And... There are issues of ethics here. You are kidding yourself to an extent when you say that you are building a "client-side web app." It is essentially an a…
I think there's a lot of truth in what you're saying and the core problem is that we somehow decided there was one correct way to make a web site, and that was to use React.
Are you creating a complex webapp? Use React. Go nuts! But are you making a mostly static page (blog, marketing site, whatever)? Then don't use React. It adds entirely unnecessary bloat and complication.
Re: The Return of the 90s Web
#19Maybe I'm missing something, the article isn't very clear. One of the reasons why we have front end apps pulling from an API is because it allows for interoperability. The same API that serves data to the web browser can serve that data to mobile apps and to third parties as well. The idea of bringing HTML rendering back on to the server just doesn't seem useful to me.
You're correct, but for many companies, APIs and multiple interoperable clients are a YAGNI.
Re: The Return of the 90s Web
#20I did get a chuckle out of a page extolling the virtues of 'html over the wire' asking me if I was
'interested in things like front-end dev and the JAMStack'