Web

• Moving on from React, a Year Later (link)

  Kelly Sutton shares their experience after a year of replacing React with a JavaScript-light approach.

  One of the arguments for a SPA is that it provides a more reactive customer experience. I think that’s mostly debunked at this point, due to the performance creep and complexity that comes in with a more complicated client-server relationship.

  While there are examples of well-built SPAs, the opposite are far more common. On the other hand, traditional server-rendered applications can provide great experiences by taking advantage of platform features like back/forward cache and view transitions. The reality is that most web applications don’t need the added complexity of managing everything with JavaScript. If you are not building something with Figma’s level of complexity, it’s probably not worth it.

• Reckoning: Frontend’s Lost Decade (link)

  Some uncomfortable truths about the state of web develoment. The current generation of JavaScript frameworks tried to overcome the platform limitations by re-implementing everything in a scripting language. It shouldn’t be a surprise that this ended up worsening the experience for users in low resources devices. The web platform has advanced so much in the last decade that it’s a shame that most of the focus hasn’t been put in ways to overcome this limitations. There might be some hope with new frameworks like Astro or Eleventy shipping JavaScript-free experiences by default and even React trying to move more of the work to the server. However, a future where progressive enhancement and taking advantage of the platform is the norm seems distant to me.