On: Show HN: Skruv – No-dependency, no-build, small JavaScript framework

[dawnerd]

In their defense it’s been a year and I’m still learning React. Please don’t act like it’s something you understand in a few hours because it’s not. You might be able to copy-paste the example code and get something that works and sorta seeing what happens but to really understand takes a lot of time.

[azangru → dawnerd]

Assuming that this vanilla js should be familiar for anyone who has only ever written js that interacts with the DOM api:

    document.body.innerHTML = `
      <div>
        Hello world
      </div>
    `;

the React equivalent is no more complex:

    const HelloWorld = () => (
      <div>
        Hello world
      </div>
    );

    ReactDOM.render(<HelloWorld />, document.body);

Add to this a couple of high-level concepts, i.e. that a React component re-renders if its arguments (props) or its internal state change, and you are 70-80% there. Learn the useState and the useEffect hooks, and you are ready to be productive. If you aren't ready for build tools yet and just want to play with the library, take Preact, which has a syntax option that does not require a build step [0]

How many hours should this take?

[0] https://preactjs.com/guide/v10/getting-started

[MrQuincle → azangru]

The problem is that React might not exist over a couple of years.

I program for decades. Most of my old stuff using frameworks - say for example, Angular or Jekyll - doesn't work anymore. If I update I end up in a dependency hell that's even worse. It's like XSLT in XML. It will pass. :-)

[azangru → MrQuincle]

> The problem is that React might not exist over a couple of years.

I agree with you in principle, but I think I disagree in details. Programming using standard web apis certainly feels more future-proof, and all the power to those who have adopted web components. But React doesn't look like it's going away within the next decade. And even if Facebook somehow implodes, and no other company steps up to support the work of the React core team, React's api has been copied by Preact, which has Google's backing; and JSX has spread even wider. Importantly, React in itself is larger than DOM — it is a reconciler that can be used for canvas/webgl (react-three-fiber), for mobile applications (react-native) and windows applications (react-native-windows). So there is a good indication that React will be with us for a while.

But again, I completely agree that many projects that get started with React don't need to have been.

> I program for decades.

Two decades ago, Perl was a good choice :-) And look where it is now.

We are lucky with the rigorous backwards compatibility of HTML, CSS and javascript. But planning for decades may be a bit of an extreme. I wouldn't like to inherit a frontend project that was written two decades ago and hasn't changed since then.

[dawnerd → azangru]

And yet you completely just proved my point.