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I think it just depends what you want to build. Once your UI reaches a certain level of complexity, the benefits of various tools begin to outweigh the cost. I

I think it just depends what you want to build. Once your UI reaches a certain level of complexity, the benefits of various tools begin to outweigh the cost. If you know you're going to end up at that point because your designs include a high level of interactivity, you might as well use tools that will support your needs from the beginning--either that or revise the designs to be less ambitious. Often newbies have a vision of what they want to build that matches the complexity/polish of established products--they're building Uber for X or Instagram for Y and so they want that same silky smooth UX. To achieve that, they are going to need a lot of packages and tools. The solution in that case isn't necessarily to convince them to build the whole thing in vanilla html/css/js instead, but to level with them about their expectations being unrealistic for where they're at.

wwweston 4y ago
> Once your UI reaches a certain level of complexity, the benefits of various tools begin to outweigh the cost. What's that certain level of complexity? I have some heuristics I might use, but what I've noticed is that even discussion about where these product behavior thresholds are seems to be rare. And "polish" and "silky smooth" don't seem like features that come automatically with any of the top frameworks either, nor things that are inherently difficult without them.
- woojoo666 4y ago
  But the earlier comment was saying to avoid NPM/Next/React because of the challenges that arise when you want to eject and add complexity. However, not using NPM/Next/React also comes with challenges when you want to add complexity. In my mind, the best advice for beginners is to just follow the mainstream. You'll get the best tutorials, best community support, easiest tooling, and least fragmentation. First time using a computer? Mac or Windows. First time programming? Javascript. Just want to do simple web dev? NPM and React. After you've got the basics down you can start exploring the niche stuff like Linux or Rust or Htmx.

wwweston 4y ago

> Once your UI reaches a certain level of complexity, the benefits of various tools begin to outweigh the cost. What's that certain level of complexity? I have some heuristics I might use, but what I've noticed is that even discussion about where these product behavior thresholds are seems to be rare. And "polish" and "silky smooth" don't seem like features that come automatically with any of the top frameworks either, nor things that are inherently difficult without them.

woojoo666 4y ago
But the earlier comment was saying to avoid NPM/Next/React because of the challenges that arise when you want to eject and add complexity. However, not using NPM/Next/React also comes with challenges when you want to add complexity. In my mind, the best advice for beginners is to just follow the mainstream. You'll get the best tutorials, best community support, easiest tooling, and least fragmentation. First time using a computer? Mac or Windows. First time programming? Javascript. Just want to do simple web dev? NPM and React. After you've got the basics down you can start exploring the niche stuff like Linux or Rust or Htmx.