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Wow, I just read about Solid for the first time, and I'm very impressed at the API design. I love how it's actually a fully reactive data flow thing, but it loo

Wow, I just read about Solid for the first time, and I'm very impressed at the API design. I love how it's actually a fully reactive data flow thing, but it looks and feels like React Hooks. The other reactive/observable-based frameworks I've seen (eg Cycle) very much put the observable streams center piece, and I always felt that was distracting, and that nuances about how the underlying observable stream library worked quickly got in the way. Solid still puts the components firmly at the center, just like React, but replaces React's state concept by fully reactive observable state, called "signals". You use them pretty much like you useState in React, but deep inside it's an observable stream of changing data, and you get all the finegrained update control that comes with that. Also, I love how noun-heavy it is. Resources, tracking scopes, effects, signals. It's just like how React moved from "do this thing after the component updated" to "ok we have this concept called an effect", but extended to more topics such as dealing with async data loading, when exactly a signal is observable, etc.

com2kid 5y ago
> but it looks and feels like React Hooks. I am confused about why this is a positive. React Hooks are the reason why I want to stop using React. They are confusing and seemingly magical, compared to lifecycle methods that make a ton of sense. While I agree they can make complex things easier, they are also incredibly easy to get wrong, as they are order dependent. Reading the Solid landing page, what I see is "Solid takes the most confusing part of React, and runs with it."
- ryansolid 5y ago
  Reactivity like this predates React Hooks. It doesn't have the hook rules/stale closures etc... No dependency arrays, useRef, or useCallback. It's a very powerful model and very different. The similarities are surface level but aren't without benefit. Composable declarative data patterns, read/write segregation, traceable state dependencies. Some people position it more like, "Solid makes Hooks the way they should have been in React". Personally understanding how React works this doesn't make sense. But I think it might be helpful for people just approaching the framework.

com2kid 5y ago

> but it looks and feels like React Hooks. I am confused about why this is a positive. React Hooks are the reason why I want to stop using React. They are confusing and seemingly magical, compared to lifecycle methods that make a ton of sense. While I agree they can make complex things easier, they are also incredibly easy to get wrong, as they are order dependent. Reading the Solid landing page, what I see is "Solid takes the most confusing part of React, and runs with it."

ryansolid 5y ago
Reactivity like this predates React Hooks. It doesn't have the hook rules/stale closures etc... No dependency arrays, useRef, or useCallback. It's a very powerful model and very different. The similarities are surface level but aren't without benefit. Composable declarative data patterns, read/write segregation, traceable state dependencies. Some people position it more like, "Solid makes Hooks the way they should have been in React". Personally understanding how React works this doesn't make sense. But I think it might be helpful for people just approaching the framework.