A handy little script from Aaron to improve the form validation experience.
The paradigm shift that web development is entering hinges on the fact that while React was a key enabler of the Single-Page-App and Component era of the web, in practice it normally tends to result in extremely poor products. Built-in browser APIs are now much more capable than they were when React was first invented.
Can we please stop adding complexity to our systems just so we can do it in JavaScript? If you can do it without JavaScript, you probably should. Tools shouldn’t add complexity.
You don’t need a framework to render static content to the end user. Stop creating complex solutions to simple problems.
One dev team made the shift from React’s “overwhelming VDOM” to modern DOM APIs. They immediately saw speed and interaction improvements.
Yay! But:
…finding developers who know vanilla JavaScript and not just the frameworks was an “unexpected difficulty.”
Boo!
Also, if you have a similar story to tell about going cold turkey on React, you should share it with Richard:
If you or your company has also transitioned away from React and into a more web-native, HTML-first approach, please tag me on Mastodon or Threads. We’d love to share further case studies of these modern, dare I say post-React, approaches.
This looks interesting. On the hand, it’s yet another proprietary creation by one browser vendor (boo!), but on the other hand it’s a declarative API with no JavaScript required (yay!).
Even if this particular feature doesn’t work out, I hope that this is the start of a trend for declarative access to browser features.
There’s a big difference between the interface to a thing being one line of code, and the cost of a thing being one line of code.
A more acute rendering of this sales pitch is probaly: “It’s just one line of code to add many more lines of code.”
And as Chris puts it:
Every dependency is a potential vulnerability
Tightening up my content security policy.
Naming custom elements, naming attributes, the single responsibility principle, and communicating across components.
Going back to school in Amsterdam.
The enshittification of React …which was already pretty shitty for users.
Don’t replace. Augment.