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I love Solid so much. It has feature parity with React and is faster. However, most importantly, it's just 1,823 well organized commits (1,329 of which belong t

I love Solid so much. It has feature parity with React and is faster. However, most importantly, it's just 1,823 well organized commits (1,329 of which belong to the creator). That gives me confidence to keep it around long term. React is unreadable and bloated with 20,368 commits and seemingly unstable with the maintainers always pivoting it around. I like it's semantics, but don't want to deal with updating it long term as a dependency.

afro88 1y ago
> most importantly, it's just 1,823 well organized commits (1,329 of which belong to the creator). That gives me confidence to keep it around long term. Genuinely curious: why does a low number of commits, and mostly commits from one person, give you confidence to keep it around long term?
- skeptrune 1y ago
  Low count suggests that the project has an intentionally built core and doesn't undergo churn or feature creep. It's also a good sign that commits per week have decreased substantially over time. Contributions being mostly from a single developer lends further credence to that idea, because it implies everything is fueled by one person's relatively opinionated vision and taste.
  - smt88 1y ago
    This conclusion is deeply divorced from reality. A single(-ish) author is the strongest smell for a library. I've been burned countless times by a project's "BDFL" moving on to something else. Sometimes a new maintainer will take over, but it's rare. Low commit count also suggests unresponsiveness to issues that are filed, especially for a TypeScript or JavaScript project. This thread single-handedly convinced me not to start a Solid project.
    - skeptrune 1y ago
      >Low commit count also suggests unresponsiveness SolidJS (Ryan mostly) is very responsive, so the low count is more a sign that there are not many issues which require code changes in the first place. Which is good! >Sometimes a new maintainer will take over, but it's rare. SolidJS really doesn't need a full-time maintainer at this point. One or more community members fixing severe bugs and keeping it up to date is plenty enough.
    - ryansolid 1y ago
      Low Commit count suggests nothing other than maybe lower traffic. I've been able to keep issues the main repo under 50 issues most of its life. I admit work towards the next major version has let this slip upwards. Also effort is split among multiple repos. Repos where I'm far from the biggest contributor. The core is small and manageable. Which is a good place to be 9 years in (7 of those open to the public). Yeah exactly 7 years tomorrow. Wow time flies.
hasperdi 1y ago
Sorry, but number of commits don't say anything about the quality and direction of a project. React has been around for much longer than Solid, and also much much more popular, with many more contributors. It's also the pioneer of virtual DOM reactivity, when you're a pioneer there bound to be some trial and error. It can also be argued that SolidJS has a higher bus factor, as it's still very dependant on the creator (Ryan Carniato). Sharing my experience... A while ago, I wanted to build an app using SolidJS 1.4 but got stuck because of a list mapping bug, ie. child list not updating IIRC. I reached out to Ryan, he said that he knew about the bug and had a fix coming in the next release. I couldn't wait, so I had to port what I had to React and call it a day.
- skeptrune 1y ago
  > When you're a pioneer, there are bound to be some trials and errors. The higher number of commits is, to some extent, empirical evidence that trials and errors were encountered. > SolidJS has a higher bus factor. For me personally, the higher bus factor is a feature, not a bug. Ryan has brought the project to a state of relative "completion." I can rest easy knowing that SolidJS would only need to be maintained, not "developed," if he were to leave.
- ryansolid 1y ago
  I wonder how long by comparison you would have had to wait for React to fix a bug of that nature. Obviously no comparison on maturity given difference of user base size, especially 3 years ago. I appreciate you sharing as I think stories like that are good example of responsiveness of the project.
freeamz 1y ago
What about hono client side? Seems to have most React functionalities: https://hono.dev/docs/guides/jsx-dom https://hono.dev/docs/guides/jsx-dom ?

afro88 1y ago

> most importantly, it's just 1,823 well organized commits (1,329 of which belong to the creator). That gives me confidence to keep it around long term. Genuinely curious: why does a low number of commits, and mostly commits from one person, give you confidence to keep it around long term?

skeptrune 1y ago
Low count suggests that the project has an intentionally built core and doesn't undergo churn or feature creep. It's also a good sign that commits per week have decreased substantially over time. Contributions being mostly from a single developer lends further credence to that idea, because it implies everything is fueled by one person's relatively opinionated vision and taste.
- smt88 1y ago
  This conclusion is deeply divorced from reality. A single(-ish) author is the strongest smell for a library. I've been burned countless times by a project's "BDFL" moving on to something else. Sometimes a new maintainer will take over, but it's rare. Low commit count also suggests unresponsiveness to issues that are filed, especially for a TypeScript or JavaScript project. This thread single-handedly convinced me not to start a Solid project.
  - skeptrune 1y ago
    >Low commit count also suggests unresponsiveness SolidJS (Ryan mostly) is very responsive, so the low count is more a sign that there are not many issues which require code changes in the first place. Which is good! >Sometimes a new maintainer will take over, but it's rare. SolidJS really doesn't need a full-time maintainer at this point. One or more community members fixing severe bugs and keeping it up to date is plenty enough.
  - ryansolid 1y ago
    Low Commit count suggests nothing other than maybe lower traffic. I've been able to keep issues the main repo under 50 issues most of its life. I admit work towards the next major version has let this slip upwards. Also effort is split among multiple repos. Repos where I'm far from the biggest contributor. The core is small and manageable. Which is a good place to be 9 years in (7 of those open to the public). Yeah exactly 7 years tomorrow. Wow time flies.

hasperdi 1y ago

Sorry, but number of commits don't say anything about the quality and direction of a project. React has been around for much longer than Solid, and also much much more popular, with many more contributors. It's also the pioneer of virtual DOM reactivity, when you're a pioneer there bound to be some trial and error. It can also be argued that SolidJS has a higher bus factor, as it's still very dependant on the creator (Ryan Carniato). Sharing my experience... A while ago, I wanted to build an app using SolidJS 1.4 but got stuck because of a list mapping bug, ie. child list not updating IIRC. I reached out to Ryan, he said that he knew about the bug and had a fix coming in the next release. I couldn't wait, so I had to port what I had to React and call it a day.

skeptrune 1y ago
> When you're a pioneer, there are bound to be some trials and errors. The higher number of commits is, to some extent, empirical evidence that trials and errors were encountered. > SolidJS has a higher bus factor. For me personally, the higher bus factor is a feature, not a bug. Ryan has brought the project to a state of relative "completion." I can rest easy knowing that SolidJS would only need to be maintained, not "developed," if he were to leave.
ryansolid 1y ago
I wonder how long by comparison you would have had to wait for React to fix a bug of that nature. Obviously no comparison on maturity given difference of user base size, especially 3 years ago. I appreciate you sharing as I think stories like that are good example of responsiveness of the project.

freeamz 1y ago

What about hono client side? Seems to have most React functionalities: https://hono.dev/docs/guides/jsx-dom https://hono.dev/docs/guides/jsx-dom ?