Live data from Hacker News

Why I don't miss React: a story about using the platform

jackfranklin.co.uk

161–170 of 279 posts

Re: Why I don't miss React: a story about using the platform

#161

Both React and Lit's approach (that requires schedulers and user uncontrolled updates) are completely unnecessary for most if not all of the applications currently using React and I bet nobody even knows why they exist. Facebook made React like this because of these requirements: they wanted their chat application that requires various real time small updates to multiple parts of the page to run quickly where a wipe…

This actually looks really nice

Re: Why I don't miss React: a story about using the platform

#162
post #51

The section about trusting dependencies, the scenario where they go away, version churn etc doesn't resonate with me in regards to react. I don't know any project in JS-land that is more serious about semver, backwards compatibility and reliable upgrades than react. If facebook dropped the project tomorrow, Vercel alone could probably continue to maintain it well.

Not only that, but so many strong engineering orgs build on React that I can't imagine it degrading very soon. Even if the top contributors left, Facebook imploded, and Airbnb disappeared, I'm quite certain there would be a crowdsourced effort to rescue and maintain the framework.

There’s even preact which is similar to react but a different org.

Re: Why I don't miss React: a story about using the platform

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah agreed. The arc of learning seems to be… This is interesting -> this is the best thing in the world -> here’s how this could be better The “use the platform” people have been making this case for web components for at least 5 years now. The reality is WC will take off when and if they are a better alternative and even then they’ll need to be paired with some sort of framework. They may even make their way into R…

React very much feels like its own platform to me - having its own browser tools to debug it is a dead giveaway.

Even on large web apps I almost never reach for the react or redux specific dev tools. Just the normal debugger is more than sufficient.

Re: Why I don't miss React: a story about using the platform

#164
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You implied it. What you should have alluded to is that it is necessary to use technologies today that won’t necessarily be in use in the future, merely as a stepping stone to get us to the next destination, where we will use a new but still temporary technology.

I think op was suggesting someday we’d be on hoverboard or something

We're all gonna be debugging wordpress apps in the metaverse while our self-driving cars whisk us down the freeway.

Re: Why I don't miss React: a story about using the platform

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Stateful components don't work so well in React. They work fine, though managing state outside of components via a state management library is common. > If you want to update props in a stateful component, the recommendation is to replace the component entirely by changing its key. Where do you find this recommendation? I’ve never seen anything like it, and keys are usually only used for repeating sets of elements,…

> Where do you find this recommendation? https://reactjs.org/blog/2018/06/07/you-probably-dont-need-d... > keys are usually only used for repeating sets of elements Not true at all!

From the blog you posted:

> In most cases, this is the best way to handle *state that needs to be reset*

You are talking about updating state, react author is talking about resetting. That's a big difference.

Re: Why I don't miss React: a story about using the platform

#166
post #8

If all you need is a couple of basic forms and some basic interaction, you can do it all with vanilla JS but let's not kid ourselves. This will not allow you to build very rich apps without implementing a significant chunk of the frameworks you dislike so much. In fact, I would even say that if this is not a core part of your product, you are simply wasting time and resources. There is a huge amount of man-hours pour…

> This will not allow you to build very rich apps without implementing a significant chunk of the frameworks you dislike so much

I am currently working on an app at work that wants SPA functionality, but they won't let me use any of the frameworks. Tons of vanilla JS and Jquery. I am sure what I have written is probably considered a crime against humanity in some place.

Does it work? Yes. Is it an elegant and maintainable codebase? Not by my definition.

Re: Why I don't miss React: a story about using the platform

#167
post #133
post #11

> But the web platform isn't perfect, and I suspect most React developers have come across a situation where you’d love to be able to just tweak how your component is being rendered. Honestly, I haven't. The only potential caveat I can think of is when you have some non-reactive legacy code you want to embed inside a React component... but even then React's escape hatches are more than sufficient. If you're really wo…

This has got to be gaslighting at the highest level: oh you're doing something wrong because that's not how you're supposed to do it in React. Not since Java's Spring have I encountered such weird zealotry for a relatively mediocre (but widely popular) framework.

I'm fairly certain you're trolling but as a good rule of thumb if you find yourself fighting your framework you picked the wrong one.

Re: Why I don't miss React: a story about using the platform

#168
post #8

If all you need is a couple of basic forms and some basic interaction, you can do it all with vanilla JS but let's not kid ourselves. This will not allow you to build very rich apps without implementing a significant chunk of the frameworks you dislike so much. In fact, I would even say that if this is not a core part of your product, you are simply wasting time and resources. There is a huge amount of man-hours pour…

> This will not allow you to build very rich apps without implementing a significant chunk of the frameworks you dislike so much I am currently working on an app at work that wants SPA functionality, but they won't let me use any of the frameworks. Tons of vanilla JS and Jquery. I am sure what I have written is probably considered a crime against humanity in some place. Does it work? Yes. Is it an elegant and maintai…

I feel you. I remember the old days of trying to build SPAs in jQuery and they were dark ones.

Re: Why I don't miss React: a story about using the platform

#169
post #8

If all you need is a couple of basic forms and some basic interaction, you can do it all with vanilla JS but let's not kid ourselves. This will not allow you to build very rich apps without implementing a significant chunk of the frameworks you dislike so much. In fact, I would even say that if this is not a core part of your product, you are simply wasting time and resources. There is a huge amount of man-hours pour…

> without implementing a significant chunk of the frameworks In my experience, it hasn't seemed all that significant. These frameworks are absurdly general and cover a range of use cases and deployment methods that most people don't use. I just need the kitchen sink, not everything else. So far, just using custom elements and a small wrapper around the element, I've not been struggling to create the features I need o…

Yeah, my experience is that people frequently overestimate the cost of building something for your needs and underestimate the integration cost of buying something.

Also, the trend of hiring developers is a plague: if you know JavaScript and the DOM well, learning the basics of react is a couple afternoons of work and you can figure out the pitfalls via code review and learning on the job.

Re: Why I don't miss React: a story about using the platform

#170
post #88
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The library has a gigantic developer share.. So did jQuery, and that google framework used to create Gmail, what was it called? Oh yeah, nobody cares anymore because they're irrelevant in 2022.

> jQuery I still see it on resumes today. > that google framework Seriously, Google stuff is infamous for being smothered by Google itself, what's your point > nobody cares anymore Literally the only non-Google example you could think of is still popular. But jQuery wasn't a graceful idea with a strong implementation, it was a wrapper to alleviate the pain of browser APIs. React is a wrapper to alleviate the pain of…

Web components might change those primatives. It is still pretty early days, but I would be surpriaed if react isn't replaced either by something built on web components, or maybe even native web components.
Post reply on HN