Libraries and frameworks generally use intrusive linked lists where the pointers are embedded inside the objects. That enables a lot of useful properties (like

Libraries and frameworks generally use intrusive linked lists where the pointers are embedded inside the objects. That enables a lot of useful properties (like traversal) with minimal overhead. That's how the DOM and Layout is implemented in browsers as well. Link lists that use separate nodes (like the project in TFA) are rarely the best choice due to the performance trade offs and way modern CPUs work. This article explains it well: https://www.data-structures-in-practice.com/intrusive-linked-lists/ https://www.data-structures-in-practice.com/intrusive-linked... See also: https://github.com/trekhleb/javascript-algorithms/blob/bbbfd32a45a677950554a91c4ece8976b8b31c38/src/data-structures/linked-list/LinkedListNode.js#L1 https://github.com/trekhleb/javascript-algorithms/blob/bbbfd... https://github.com/trekhleb/javascript-algorithms/blob/bbbfd32a45a677950554a91c4ece8976b8b31c38/src/data-structures/linked-list/LinkedList.js#L4 https://github.com/trekhleb/javascript-algorithms/blob/bbbfd... Vs what React does: https://github.com/facebook/react/blob/657698e48d5b093b4ea5a7684e26d3fdd16695f2/packages/react-reconciler/src/ReactFiber.js#L148 https://github.com/facebook/react/blob/657698e48d5b093b4ea5a...