Lessons To Outlive React

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There was a time before React, and there will be life after. If you tie yourself too closely to any technology, you might trap yourself and miss the next wave. Let's zoom out from the state management library du jour — what timeless lessons can we learn from React? In the talk I'll discuss lessons I've learned from studying React that I will take with me for the rest of my career.

This talk has been presented at React Summit Remote Edition 2021, check out the latest edition of this React Conference.

FAQ

The seven lessons discussed to outlive React include the reconciler and scheduler pattern, minimal API surface area, API design as language design, optimizing for change, testing the public API, the importance of DevTools, and the significance of community engagement.

The reconciler and scheduler pattern in React involves regenerating the whole program output every time it runs, utilizing caching and structural sharing for efficiency. This pattern is highlighted for its potential applicability in various programming jobs beyond React.

A minimal API surface area, as advocated in React, means using an explicit and sometimes repetitive API rather than an implicit one. This approach reduces the complexity of the API, making it easier to manage and evolve over time.

API design is likened to language design because it involves careful consideration of naming and structuring, which significantly impacts how developers interact with the framework and think about their code.

Optimizing for change involves designing APIs and software systems that are easy to modify and update without breaking. It focuses on making the right thing the easy thing, emphasizing local reasoning, and minimizing dependencies that can complicate changes.

Testing the public API is crucial as it ensures the most critical and user-facing aspects of the software are robust and reliable. This approach helps maintain compatibility over time, even through major codebase rewrites.

React DevTools are essential for debugging and optimizing React applications. They provide developers with deep insights into the React component tree and performance characteristics, facilitating a better development experience and more efficient applications.

Community engagement has been pivotal in React's development and adoption. Early and continuous feedback from the community has guided the framework's evolution, helping address user needs and spreading its adoption across different developers and organizations.

Shawn Swyx Wang
Shawn Swyx Wang
34 min
14 May, 2021

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Video Summary and Transcription

The Talk focuses on the lessons we can learn from React's success, including API design, optimizing for change, testing, and community engagement. The idea of a DX UX mullet, with immediate mode in the front and retained mode in the back, is observed in various areas of software development. The importance of naming and optimizing for change is emphasized, as well as the significance of DevTools and building a community. The principles behind the Temporal framework and the importance of good naming in API design are also discussed.
Available in Español: Lecciones para sobrevivir a React

1. Lessons to Outlive React

Short description:

React is older than jQuery when it was first released. jQuery still powers a significant portion of the Internet, but it's no longer as cool. React will also face a similar fate. The talk focuses on the lessons we can learn from React's success. The seven lessons cover the reconciler, API surface area, API design, optimizing for change, testing, dev tools, and community. React's reconciler and scheduler pattern is a good idea for various jobs. The scheduler is seeing implications beyond React, and the React core team has split it into its own package. They are also working with the Chrome dev team to potentially build it into the browser.

Hey, React Summit. I'm here to offer seven lessons to outlive React. So, the premise for this talk is that React is older than jQuery was when React was first released. And jQuery isn't dead. It's still powering a huge amount of the Internet, but it's no longer as cool as it once was. And that fate will come for React someday as well. We should try to think about what will last beyond React.

So as we look at React on its ascendancy and coming into its very mature phase, we should think about what lessons we learn from this enormous success. So hello, I'm swix. I work on a bunch of different things. And I do a lot in the React community. But mostly I give React talks, which is the most relevant qualification for this conference. And a lot of these talks are focusing on individual elements of React. But this is the first talk to really cover the overall philosophy, which I think can take away from that. If you want to dive into individual details, these talks are really good to cover about cover the technical foundations from which I draw a lot of these principles.

So the seven lessons up front are presented here. We'll talk about the reconciler, API surface area, API design, optimizing for change, testing, dev tools and community. So the first part is that the reconciler and scheduler pattern is probably a really good idea for a bunch of different jobs. And this actually comes from Jordan Walk, which is his original insight. That whatever it is your program produces, pixels, files, anything, just make your program regenerate the whole thing every time, add caching and structural sharing to make it fast and that's it. And obviously that's a lot of the original pitch, which I captured from the original JSConf talk. And that's the way that React sort of differentiated itself from the beginning.

But maybe it's also overlooking the other MVP of React, which is scheduling. Right? Which is the other part. And we are seeing a lot of innovation now, when you switch over from old React to concurrent mode React, you start to get the benefits of time slicing, which is talked about a lot. If you want a further primer on scheduling in React, definitely check out Philips Spice's blog post, which I featured here. This scheduler is actually starting to see implications beyond React. So the React core team actually split out the scheduler package into its own package in hopes that other frameworks might be able to use it. And they're working on the Chrome dev team, that should be from the Chrome dev team, to maybe build it into their browser. So if you want React built into the browser, this is the start.

2. DX UX Mullet: Immediate and Retained Mode

Short description:

The idea of a DX UX mullet encapsulates the concept of immediate mode in the front and retained mode in the back. Immediate mode involves rerendering the entire system every time, while retained mode retains the state. This pattern is observed in various areas like build systems, GraphQL, ETL pipelines, and Nullify, where developers aim for speed and simplicity.

But overall I think this actually encapsulates the idea of a DX UX mullet. That's my term for it. Where you have immediate mode in the front and retained mode in the back. Immediate mode, just rerender the whole thing every single time for both the frontend, the user, as well as the developer. And retained mode, which is the system in the middle which actually retains the state. And this is actually true for build systems. So Jared Palmer is actually working on a build system where he has the exact same pattern. And he starts to see this pattern over and over again in GraphQL, in ETL pipelines, and Nullify. And a lot of other different aspects of life where you have a developer working with a system and you want to make it fast, but also easy to reason about.

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