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A lot of these seem to be JS-based. Static site generators are supposed to be simple, static, and generate small pages that load fast. I don't see why I'd need

A lot of these seem to be JS-based. Static site generators are supposed to be simple, static, and generate small pages that load fast. I don't see why I'd need React or Vue support for a *static* site.

tenebrisalietum 5y ago
Static just means your site is loading actual CDN- and cache-friendly files and not stuff dynamically generated on the fly by a server side process, or loaded through such a process. Javascript can still be statically loaded in this situation and could be used to provide UI elements (such as collapsible sections) or even an interactive local search.
- superkuh 5y ago
  That is a very new domain specific overloading of what the term 'static website' means. Unlike the old usage which is from the point of view of the website user where static means they don't have to execute code, the new usages tend to be developer experience focused and of little general utility.
  - bachmeier 5y ago
    Yeah, the "new" usage of the term, where it describes the location of page generation, doesn't seem all that helpful. If you generate a file that's mostly html (with maybe a bit of JS mixed in), you have something that serves and renders fast even on lesser machines. That has always been the important distinction to me. Edit: Just to be clear, I'm not saying web pages should be mostly statically generated html with a bit of JS. The point is that someone developing a web app shouldn't normally be concerned about whether or not it's static.
brianzelip 5y ago
> I don't see why I'd need React or Vue support for a static site. Sometimes the reason is the dev workflow rather than the output.
paxys 5y ago
You can generate a fully static site (no JS) with React.
qbasic_forever 5y ago
No one wants a bespoke template language for every different project. You want to be able to share and use the same template for rendering a dynamic contact list populated by an AJAX call on your site's dynamic pages, with the simple static marketing page that lists all the project creators for example. React/Vue/Svelte/etc. are just templating systems that started as dynamic frontend-only solutions but now see use in generating static pages too. The idea is that the same templates can be reused, shared, mixed and matched, etc. in all uses. You don't need to spend weeks building and maintaining two separate types of templates--those used for dynamic vs. static pages.

tenebrisalietum 5y ago

Static just means your site is loading actual CDN- and cache-friendly files and not stuff dynamically generated on the fly by a server side process, or loaded through such a process. Javascript can still be statically loaded in this situation and could be used to provide UI elements (such as collapsible sections) or even an interactive local search.

superkuh 5y ago
That is a very new domain specific overloading of what the term 'static website' means. Unlike the old usage which is from the point of view of the website user where static means they don't have to execute code, the new usages tend to be developer experience focused and of little general utility.
- bachmeier 5y ago
  Yeah, the "new" usage of the term, where it describes the location of page generation, doesn't seem all that helpful. If you generate a file that's mostly html (with maybe a bit of JS mixed in), you have something that serves and renders fast even on lesser machines. That has always been the important distinction to me. Edit: Just to be clear, I'm not saying web pages should be mostly statically generated html with a bit of JS. The point is that someone developing a web app shouldn't normally be concerned about whether or not it's static.

brianzelip 5y ago

> I don't see why I'd need React or Vue support for a static site. Sometimes the reason is the dev workflow rather than the output.

paxys 5y ago

You can generate a fully static site (no JS) with React.

qbasic_forever 5y ago

No one wants a bespoke template language for every different project. You want to be able to share and use the same template for rendering a dynamic contact list populated by an AJAX call on your site's dynamic pages, with the simple static marketing page that lists all the project creators for example. React/Vue/Svelte/etc. are just templating systems that started as dynamic frontend-only solutions but now see use in generating static pages too. The idea is that the same templates can be reused, shared, mixed and matched, etc. in all uses. You don't need to spend weeks building and maintaining two separate types of templates--those used for dynamic vs. static pages.