What Is React.js?
🔗 a linked post to
briefs.video »
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originally shared here on
In summary:
- Facebook is a [redacted] company with a terrible web interface.
- React is a technology created at Facebook to administer its interface.
- React enables you to build web applications and their interfaces the way Facebook does.
- I am not calling Facebook "Meta"
- JavaScript-first interfaces built on ecosystems like React’s are cumbersome and under-performing.
- React prevails because its evangelical proponents and apologists have convinced developers that Facebook’s success can be attributed to technological quality and not aggressive capitalism.
Over the past fifteen years, I feel like I’ve had a pretty good track record of knowing which technologies to pay attention to and which technologies to confidently let pass by me.
When React first dropped, I thought the setup process seemed so onerous and filled with so many dependencies that I slowly backed away and haven't really needed to look back.
It would be irresponsible of me to have zero experience in React, so of course I've inherited projects that others have started on top of it. But every time I jump into a React project, I feel like I’m Homer jumping into his unchlorinated pool.1
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I mean, this is how I feel every time I jump into a Facebook-owned property these days. ↩