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I haven't used React in about 6 years - used to be pretty heavily involved with it across web and native. These days I truly feel like ecosystem has lost its mi

I haven't used React in about 6 years - used to be pretty heavily involved with it across web and native. These days I truly feel like ecosystem has lost its mind and the developers are just bikeshedding the most esoteric and unhinged choices possible.

draw_down 2y ago
[dead]
cageface 2y ago
All the leading frameworks these days include their own compiler. This is just React catching up and eliminating a lot of the tedious and error prone dependency tracking you have to do by hand now with a tool that does it for you.
_fat_santa 2y ago
I would have to respectfully disagree. React Hooks was probably the last "big" update to React and it totally changed how you build an application. The issue with hooks is you had hooks like useEffect that has very clear footguns that most seasoned developers knew but new developers would step on over and over and you also had optimization strategies with useMemo that weren't well known unless you've been around react for a while. Thing is with both of these is they can be automated with a compiler rather than having devs optimize it manually. My code has a ton of useMemo's and those micro optimizations and I estimate I can eliminate about 10k LOC assuming the react compiler does what it's advertised to do.
- PaulHoule 2y ago
  Contrary to what a lot of people say, useMemo is more than a performance optimization. If React decides to create a new instance of a component because it thinks a parameter change happened all the state in that component can get dumped which can have effects like a bunch of selections in a combo box disappearing.
  - SebastianKra 2y ago
    This does not happen. If you're losing state, it's always either because A: the component is replaced with another, B: the component is removed, C: you have given this component a key and changed it. From your example, I think you've assigned bad keys, or forgot to assign keys (for which the linter will scream at you)
mock-possum 2y ago
What are you using these days, and how are you finding non-react work? I’m a front end dev with plenty experience and no fondness for react - but “3-5 years react experience” is a hard requirement for almost every senior dev position I see coming down the pipe. :/
- whalesalad 2y ago
  ALL of these frameworks are 110% interchangeable. If I was a 100% vue shop (which we are), I would not hesitate to hire a React expert. Or vice versa. After a few weeks or months that knowledge will translate and before long that React expert will also be a Vue expert, or at least well on their way. I would prefer a Javascript, DOM, Browser, HTTP, HTML and CSS expert to any framework specialist. These frameworks are ultimately a means to an end. The fundamentals matter the most. If you are intimate with fundamentals, everything else is just a walk in the park to map the fundamental knowledge to the frameworks approach or implementation. I am not building Vue apps. I am not building React apps. I am building apps, and those frameworks happen to be one building block. So if you know how to build killer shit for the web, I would not consider your lack of React knowledge to matter at all. You can pick that up quick.
  - mock-possum 2y ago
    I mean I’m with you, I can only assume the people reading my resume don’t see it that way. I assume when they’re choosing between “5 years of angular but react isn’t hard” and “5 years of react,” they going with the latter. People keep telling me I just need to lie on my resume but I really don’t want to do that.
satvikpendem 2y ago
Why is it always people who haven't used React (or frontend dev in general) recently that feel the need to talk about how it's making "the most esoteric and unhinged choices possible?" All of the changes are solving problems that actual users of these frameworks run into.
- whalesalad 2y ago
  I have been building web applications for nearly 20 years. I have worked at every level of the stack and used every framework you can imagine. I have a lot of context on the situation. I left React years ago for greener pastures for a reason.
  - satvikpendem 2y ago
    I'm not saying you don't have the experience, but by your own admission you left React years ago, so how can you have context into what its current problems are and how they're being solved? Experience does not necessarily transfer across domains. It can, but not necessarily so.
    - deleted 2y ago
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    - deleted 2y ago
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  - robertoandred 2y ago
    And these green pastures are?
    - whalesalad 2y ago
      Vue!
- lelanthran 2y ago
  > Why is it always people who haven't used React (or frontend dev in general) recently that feel the need to talk about how it's making "the most esoteric and unhinged choices possible?" It might just be that, because they aren't married to the system anymore, they have a larger perspective than the people who can't see out of the system they are in. The reality is probably somewhere between your and my extremes.

draw_down 2y ago

[dead]

cageface 2y ago

All the leading frameworks these days include their own compiler. This is just React catching up and eliminating a lot of the tedious and error prone dependency tracking you have to do by hand now with a tool that does it for you.

_fat_santa 2y ago

I would have to respectfully disagree. React Hooks was probably the last "big" update to React and it totally changed how you build an application. The issue with hooks is you had hooks like useEffect that has very clear footguns that most seasoned developers knew but new developers would step on over and over and you also had optimization strategies with useMemo that weren't well known unless you've been around react for a while. Thing is with both of these is they can be automated with a compiler rather than having devs optimize it manually. My code has a ton of useMemo's and those micro optimizations and I estimate I can eliminate about 10k LOC assuming the react compiler does what it's advertised to do.

PaulHoule 2y ago
Contrary to what a lot of people say, useMemo is more than a performance optimization. If React decides to create a new instance of a component because it thinks a parameter change happened all the state in that component can get dumped which can have effects like a bunch of selections in a combo box disappearing.
- SebastianKra 2y ago
  This does not happen. If you're losing state, it's always either because A: the component is replaced with another, B: the component is removed, C: you have given this component a key and changed it. From your example, I think you've assigned bad keys, or forgot to assign keys (for which the linter will scream at you)

mock-possum 2y ago

What are you using these days, and how are you finding non-react work? I’m a front end dev with plenty experience and no fondness for react - but “3-5 years react experience” is a hard requirement for almost every senior dev position I see coming down the pipe. :/

whalesalad 2y ago
ALL of these frameworks are 110% interchangeable. If I was a 100% vue shop (which we are), I would not hesitate to hire a React expert. Or vice versa. After a few weeks or months that knowledge will translate and before long that React expert will also be a Vue expert, or at least well on their way. I would prefer a Javascript, DOM, Browser, HTTP, HTML and CSS expert to any framework specialist. These frameworks are ultimately a means to an end. The fundamentals matter the most. If you are intimate with fundamentals, everything else is just a walk in the park to map the fundamental knowledge to the frameworks approach or implementation. I am not building Vue apps. I am not building React apps. I am building apps, and those frameworks happen to be one building block. So if you know how to build killer shit for the web, I would not consider your lack of React knowledge to matter at all. You can pick that up quick.
- mock-possum 2y ago
  I mean I’m with you, I can only assume the people reading my resume don’t see it that way. I assume when they’re choosing between “5 years of angular but react isn’t hard” and “5 years of react,” they going with the latter. People keep telling me I just need to lie on my resume but I really don’t want to do that.

satvikpendem 2y ago

Why is it always people who haven't used React (or frontend dev in general) recently that feel the need to talk about how it's making "the most esoteric and unhinged choices possible?" All of the changes are solving problems that actual users of these frameworks run into.

whalesalad 2y ago
I have been building web applications for nearly 20 years. I have worked at every level of the stack and used every framework you can imagine. I have a lot of context on the situation. I left React years ago for greener pastures for a reason.
- satvikpendem 2y ago
  I'm not saying you don't have the experience, but by your own admission you left React years ago, so how can you have context into what its current problems are and how they're being solved? Experience does not necessarily transfer across domains. It can, but not necessarily so.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- robertoandred 2y ago
  And these green pastures are?
  - whalesalad 2y ago
    Vue!
lelanthran 2y ago
> Why is it always people who haven't used React (or frontend dev in general) recently that feel the need to talk about how it's making "the most esoteric and unhinged choices possible?" It might just be that, because they aren't married to the system anymore, they have a larger perspective than the people who can't see out of the system they are in. The reality is probably somewhere between your and my extremes.