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As a fellow 37 year old, I had a realization yesterday after a prolonged debate about HTMX vs React. For context: I’m a long time React fan, think htmx is neat,

by Swizec 2y ago

As a fellow 37 year old, I had a realization yesterday after a prolonged debate about HTMX vs React. For context: I’m a long time React fan, think htmx is neat, and remember all the reasons why HTML-over-Ajax didn’t catch on in the 2007 web development era. Been a primarily web guy since 2003 or so. The problem with React (and friends) isn’t React (and friends), it’s react developers. People who aren’t web developers first and react users second. I have interviewed (and worked with) so many frontend engineers with years of experience whose minds were completely blown by the idea of using a form submit event to handle form submission. Or my biggest pet peeve – button + onclick to change location.href instead of just making a link. Argh. So yeah I think we’re lucky to have grown up with this stuff and seen it evolve over time. Many folks these days come to the field backwards and miss a lot of the good stuff that’s available to them.

edoceo 2y ago
The problem with X isn't X, it's the devs. I've heard that about PHP, JS, shell, .Net, VB6 and damn near every framework ever. But aren't we the devs? We're just in their code saying their baby ugly? There's gotta be a better way than just blaming noobs.
- Swizec 2y ago
  > There's gotta be a better way than just blaming noobs. Here’s an alternative read of what I said: It is amazing that these frameworks empower so many people to build working software that solves users’ problems and creates value. This is awesome! Sure the code sucks and we gripe about how many of the people don’t even care to learn the depths of the tech they use and clearly they don’t need to. This is a win. We can teach the ones who want to learn more and constrain those who don’t to where they can be effective without causing too much damage. And most babies are ugly. It’s fine.
jzer0cool 2y ago
Liked reading this, could you share a few examples. What you saw, what you wanted.

by Swizec 2y ago

edoceo 2y ago

The problem with X isn't X, it's the devs. I've heard that about PHP, JS, shell, .Net, VB6 and damn near every framework ever. But aren't we the devs? We're just in their code saying their baby ugly? There's gotta be a better way than just blaming noobs.

Swizec 2y ago
> There's gotta be a better way than just blaming noobs. Here’s an alternative read of what I said: It is amazing that these frameworks empower so many people to build working software that solves users’ problems and creates value. This is awesome! Sure the code sucks and we gripe about how many of the people don’t even care to learn the depths of the tech they use and clearly they don’t need to. This is a win. We can teach the ones who want to learn more and constrain those who don’t to where they can be effective without causing too much damage. And most babies are ugly. It’s fine.

jzer0cool 2y ago

Liked reading this, could you share a few examples. What you saw, what you wanted.