←back to thread

Some software bloat is OK

(waspdev.com)
50 points senfiaj | 2 comments | 04 Nov 25 08:27 UTC | HN request time: 0.5s | source
Show context
usrbinenv ◴[04 Nov 25 10:26 UTC] No.45809379[source]▶
If I could make one law related to software, it would be to ban React and React-like frameworks (includes Vue and Svelte I believe): if you have to put more than one line of HTML in your JavaScript, if you have VDOM, if you have a build step - I want this to be illegal. It is entirely possible to write a js-framework that attaches itself to DOM from the top, without any kind of expensive hydration steps or VDOM or templating (I've built one). React is a horrible complex monster that wastes developers time, heats up users' CPUs and generally feels super slow and laggy. 99% percent of websites would work a lot better with SSR and a few lines of JavaScript here and there and there is zero reason to bring anything like React to the table. React is the most tasteless thing ever invented in software.
replies(3): >>45809418 #>>45809650 #>>45809781 #
1. athanagor2 ◴[04 Nov 25 11:33 UTC] No.45809781[source]▶
> React and React-like frameworks (includes Vue and Svelte I believe)

Putting React with those two is a wild take.

> 99% percent of websites would work a lot better with SSR and a few lines of JavaScript here and there and there is zero reason to bring anything like React to the table.

Probably but as soon as you have a modicum of logic in your page the primitives of the web are a pain to use.

Also, I must be able to build stuff in the 1% space. I actually did it before: I built an app that's entirely client-side, with Vue, and "serverless" in the sense that it's distributed in the form of one single HTML file. Although we changed that in the last few months to host it on a proper server.

The level of psychological trauma that some back-end devs seem to endure is hilarious though. Like I get it, software sucks and it's sad but no need to be dramatic about it.

And btw, re forbidding stuff: no library, no process, no method can ever substitute to actually knowing what you're doing.

replies(1): >>45809856 #
2. usrbinenv ◴[04 Nov 25 11:45 UTC] No.45809856[source]▶
You can do very complex stuff without any need for React like approach. I literally said I've written a very sophisticated framework that was exceptionally snappy - that's what should be used for that 1% (not my framework, but the approach). Even better, I could introduce it very gradually and strategically on different SSR pages and then (if I wanted to) I could turn the whole app into an SPA - all without needing to "render" anything with JavaScript, VDOM or other such nonsense.