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Look ma, no React: I recoded my portfolio site with vanilla everything

clairefro.dev

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Re: Look ma, no React: I recoded my portfolio site with vanilla everything

#141

Post by zhte415 »

bdcravens wrote: post #69
carlossouza wrote: post #17

> I became a dev when everyone was hiring for React, so React is what I taught myself immediately after bootcamp in the scramble for a job A better education path (in a bootcamp, university, book, youtube, whatever) would start with the fundamentals and build it from the ground up... not the other way around. (I just realized how lucky I am for being taught in the best possible order, from the ground up... first the…

For me, coming online in the late 1990s, I've never experienced as much "education density" as I did when learning HTML to build sites on Geocities. For those who didn't experience that, circa 1997, you could either upload files or write HTML in nothing more than a textfield. No highlighting, no WYSIWYG, no page builders. Just you and a blank canvas (if you were lucky you might use an editor like Homesite or HotDog)

It was also a time of DIYing shopping carts in cookies, forums all about getting payments working, and what's HTTPS?

Re: Look ma, no React: I recoded my portfolio site with vanilla everything

#143

Post by creata »

uxcolumbo wrote: post #77
zeroonetwothree wrote: post #2

Yes you don’t need React for a static site. Is this news at this point? Also I find the colour scheme hard to read but maybe it’s just me.

It's not just you. The site has poor contrast ratio - fails all accessibility guidelines for text contrast ratio requirements.

Really? Firefox says the contrast ratios meet WCAG AA.

For me, the main problem is the font weight. I'm sure it looks better on high-density displays, but it is way too thin to read comfortably at a regular pixel density.

Re: Look ma, no React: I recoded my portfolio site with vanilla everything

#144

Post by throwaway675309 »

carlossouza wrote: post #17

> I became a dev when everyone was hiring for React, so React is what I taught myself immediately after bootcamp in the scramble for a job A better education path (in a bootcamp, university, book, youtube, whatever) would start with the fundamentals and build it from the ground up... not the other way around. (I just realized how lucky I am for being taught in the best possible order, from the ground up... first the…

I love when people say this, because everyone has a different relative arbitrary starting point for the term "basic".

So let's take you, for example.

How far back did you start ? Did you write a basic HTML site in notepad?

Did you program your own TCP/IP stack?

Of course you at least configured the actual Web server using Apache on your Debian vps, right?

See how tired this argument is?

As for me, I just directly manipulate the platters of my hard drive using a magnetized needle to encode sequences of ones and zeros.

Re: Look ma, no React: I recoded my portfolio site with vanilla everything

#145

Post by lazypenguin »

throwaway675309 wrote: post #144
carlossouza wrote: post #17

> I became a dev when everyone was hiring for React, so React is what I taught myself immediately after bootcamp in the scramble for a job A better education path (in a bootcamp, university, book, youtube, whatever) would start with the fundamentals and build it from the ground up... not the other way around. (I just realized how lucky I am for being taught in the best possible order, from the ground up... first the…

I love when people say this, because everyone has a different relative arbitrary starting point for the term "basic". So let's take you, for example. How far back did you start ? Did you write a basic HTML site in notepad? Did you program your own TCP/IP stack? Of course you at least configured the actual Web server using Apache on your Debian vps, right? See how tired this argument is? As for me, I just directly man…

None of these things are fundamentals

Re: Look ma, no React: I recoded my portfolio site with vanilla everything

#146

Post by baobabKoodaa »

c-hendricks wrote: post #139
ehnto wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you all missed GPs point, JS is barely required, let alone an SPA framework, let alone static generation in an SPA framework, etc.

And you're missing the other GPs point. Even when building a static website, you might want to reuse components. Or use shared components. Or do some logic. Or easily compose things. Note they said "JSX as a templating language". Why worsen the experience using Python + Jinja when you're just building a static site.

[flagged]

Re: Look ma, no React: I recoded my portfolio site with vanilla everything

#148

Post by drunkenmagician »

pc86 wrote: post #105
randomdata wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that's why learning is best left as an individual pursuit. For me, it is always best to start with a complex system and then work backwards, understanding the thoughts and decisions that went into each step along the way. When I start with the basics I don't get a feel for the bigger picture and it means nothing. I'm glad I've only been around the industry for 25-some-odd years. We already had many high level abs…

I hate to break it to you but if you've been in the professional world for 25 years, you're old :)

I think the word(s) you meant to say were ‘properly experienced’ ;)

Re: Look ma, no React: I recoded my portfolio site with vanilla everything

#149

Post by seattle_spring »

eropple wrote: post #45
yitianjian wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My hot take: there's a general feeling of looking down on "web devs" or UI/front-end stuff. It's not really necessary to have React for a portfolio site, but it's not really an issue if they do.

I wouldn't consider myself a frontend developer--I've run infra teams, built backends, built desktop applications, all that too--and I'd definitely agree with that. There's a lot of strange smugfacing about using fit-for-purpose tools that translates into the shitting on people by the old-at-heart and the underinformed. Like, stepping away from JavaScript for a second, you still see people getting mad about C++ on HN…

Beautifully said. Ironically (or maybe not), the worst engineers I've worked with in the last 15 years are strictly backend engineers who vocalize how frontend is easy / isn't real software engineering / etc.

Re: Look ma, no React: I recoded my portfolio site with vanilla everything

#150

Post by whoknowsidont »

lisasays wrote: post #103
madeofpalk wrote: post #101

Author made a two page static website without React. Okay? Congrats?

Actually, yes. The conventional wisdom these days is to do everything in React (or something similarly bloated). Because, you know, users just love seeing a bunch of grey boxes shimmer and dance on a white background for several seconds before the magic really starts to happen. So any exercise which demonstrates that there just might be an alternative to this philosophy should be applauded.

> users just love seeing a bunch of grey boxes shimmer and dance on a white background for several seconds before the magic really starts to happen.

This has nothing to do with React, this is a placeholder rendering strategy employed by many different frameworks and languages.The rendering strategies are orthogonal to the framework.

I've written many websites entirely in React but you'd never know it, because they're all SSG. I've done hybrid SSR + SSG + placeholder/delayed load.

I could have done all of that with .NET, Elixir, etc. too because it has nothing to do with the language/framework.

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