Solid.js feels like what I always wanted React to be

#1

Post by jamghee » Tue, Mar 01, 2022, 2:26 AM UTC

Solid.js feels like what I always wanted React to be
typeofnan.dev

Re: Solid.js feels like what I always wanted React to be

#2

Post by smt88 » Tue, Mar 01, 2022, 3:12 AM UTC

This is interesting because it's a bit like Svelte, but it doesn't use the Svelte "language" (which looks like JS and HTML but, in some crucial ways, sometimes isn't).

It's a little disheartening to see that it's 3+ years old and has only had a single significant contributor though[1].

It's impossible to avoid single-contributor projects in the JS world, especially with Node, but the alternatives (React, Vue, Angular, and even Svelte) are orders of magnitude more popular, so it's one area that we can play it safe if we need to.

1. https://github.com/solidjs/solid/graphs/contributors

Re: Solid.js feels like what I always wanted React to be

#3

Post by armchairhacker » Tue, Mar 01, 2022, 3:34 AM UTC

smt88 wrote: post #2

This is interesting because it's a bit like Svelte, but it doesn't use the Svelte "language" (which looks like JS and HTML but, in some crucial ways, sometimes isn't ). It's a little disheartening to see that it's 3+ years old and has only had a single significant contributor though[1]. It's impossible to avoid single-contributor projects in the JS world, especially with Node, but the alternatives (React, Vue, Angula…

solid.js may only have a single contributor but i believe it’s been battle-tested and used in some larger projects (don’t have any examples off the top of my head though)

Re: Solid.js feels like what I always wanted React to be

#4

Post by jamghee » Tue, Mar 01, 2022, 3:37 AM UTC

smt88 wrote: post #2

This is interesting because it's a bit like Svelte, but it doesn't use the Svelte "language" (which looks like JS and HTML but, in some crucial ways, sometimes isn't ). It's a little disheartening to see that it's 3+ years old and has only had a single significant contributor though[1]. It's impossible to avoid single-contributor projects in the JS world, especially with Node, but the alternatives (React, Vue, Angula…

I have no idea if it's in the creator's interest but I'd love to see Solid get backed by a company the way React, Angular, and Svelte are. That might make people take it more seriously as an option but, as-is, it certainly feels like a risky option to use professionally.

Re: Solid.js feels like what I always wanted React to be

#5

Post by thex10 » Tue, Mar 01, 2022, 3:47 AM UTC

As someone who doesn’t feel so enamored with React’s hooks, I find this compelling.

Re: Solid.js feels like what I always wanted React to be

#6

Post by jamghee » Tue, Mar 01, 2022, 3:56 AM UTC

thex10 wrote: post #5

As someone who doesn’t feel so enamored with React’s hooks, I find this compelling.

React hooks are footguns

Re: Solid.js feels like what I always wanted React to be

#7

Post by adam_arthur » Tue, Mar 01, 2022, 4:13 AM UTC

jamghee wrote: post #6

thex10 wrote: post #5

As someone who doesn’t feel so enamored with React’s hooks, I find this compelling.

React hooks are footguns

Vue hooks avoid the closure/scoping issue mentioned in the doc. Very similar conceptually, but I find Vue's implementation a bit nicer to use

Re: Solid.js feels like what I always wanted React to be

#8

Post by kevinmchugh » Tue, Mar 01, 2022, 4:23 AM UTC

jamghee wrote: post #6

thex10 wrote: post #5

As someone who doesn’t feel so enamored with React’s hooks, I find this compelling.

React hooks are footguns

I'm missing some toes from the old react lifecycle methods. The vanilla hooks were easy to use, reason about, and robust against misuse in a way the lifecycle methods weren't.

I could see custom hooks being more dangerous and difficult, but Higher-Order Components are too.

Re: Solid.js feels like what I always wanted React to be

#9

Post by lhorie » Tue, Mar 01, 2022, 4:32 AM UTC

jamghee wrote: post #4

smt88 wrote: post #2

This is interesting because it's a bit like Svelte, but it doesn't use the Svelte "language" (which looks like JS and HTML but, in some crucial ways, sometimes isn't ). It's a little disheartening to see that it's 3+ years old and has only had a single significant contributor though[1]. It's impossible to avoid single-contributor projects in the JS world, especially with Node, but the alternatives (React, Vue, Angula…

I have no idea if it's in the creator's interest but I'd love to see Solid get backed by a company the way React, Angular, and Svelte are. That might make people take it more seriously as an option but, as-is, it certainly feels like a risky option to use professionally.

FWIW, the author joined the Marko core team at eBay a while back.

But from what I hear, he's still pretty responsive on Github.

Re: Solid.js feels like what I always wanted React to be

#10

Post by preommr » Tue, Mar 01, 2022, 4:35 AM UTC

I swear we're just going around in circles because people only have a surface level understanding of these front-end frameworks, and the challenges with building at scale.

react isn't about 'hooks', 'jsx', 'top-down-state', or 'component-driven architecture'. All these frameworks are component-based, can have top down state only (or do bottom up in react), can use things like jsx/hooks because it's just syntactic sugar (vue has jsx support).

react is fundamentally about 'inputs changed, render this'. This got rid of a lot of issues with poor code because frameworks had crappy DX (angluar 1 scope nonsense, and overengineered DI concepts), and people were bad at tracking side effects because a lot of people just wanted a search bar with some cool features and not everyone was building sophisticated products.

That setInterval example is fundamentally against what react is, and is basically svelte/vue/(react + mobx).