On: The Frontend Treadmill

[conorbergin]

When I made my first website I read things online like "svelte is better than react" and "solid-js will be the next big thing", and I thought this was an important part of web development. Newbies should read MDN and ignore everything else.

[yawnxyz → conorbergin]

> Newbies should read MDN and ignore everything else.

I think people forget how inaccessible it is for a newbie to start writing pure javascript directly from the API reference.

People need tutorials and walkthroughs, and need to build a an internal understanding of how these all work.

Frameworks help them abstract all that

[skydhash → yawnxyz]

> I think people forget how inaccessible it is for a newbie to start writing pure javascript directly from the API reference.

That's when you buy a book and try to do practice projects, and learn how everything works.

[poncho_romero → yawnxyz]

MDN has exactly those kinds of tutorials and walk throughs! It’s not all API documentation

[areoform → poncho_romero]

Which ones? Could you link to them?

[skgough → areoform]

HTML: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_developme...

CSS: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_developme...

JS: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_developme...

They even have courses for frameworks.

React: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_developme...

Svelte: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_developme...

Vue: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_developme...

[yawnxyz → poncho_romero]

I've been using MDN for a decade, and this is a TIL!

[only-one1701 → conorbergin]

React's been around long enough and is dug in deep enough to have decent ROI on knowing fairly well, but the recent obsession with Next.js and SSR...maybe not. Privately I think this might be their undoing.

[conorbergin → only-one1701]

I agree with learning React, it pops up in all sorts of places, vscode extensions, the windows start menu apparently.

But yes, mixed-rendering, server functions, meta-frameworks, etc. You are in real danger of spending years learning all this stuff and still not being any closer to knowing how computers work.

[croes → only-one1701]

Which version of react?

Hooks or classes?

Or whatever comes next.

[Etheryte → croes]

You can still write class-based components in React, no problem. It might not be in vogue, but for the most part, you can still write React 18.x roughly the same way you wrote React 0.x.

[rcarr → Etheryte]

You can but are people going to when the first thing you see upon opening the docs is a giant warning telling you not to?

https://react.dev/reference/react/Component