Comment by rendall | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rendall | Hacker News Reader

This article is but one example of why I think React is actively harmful to the web. Its practitioners generally speaking have little interest or incentive to understand what's going on under the hood, and it shows. Its compiled code, except with exceptional teams, has no semantics and baffling, sloppy css.

The article's main point is a definitely worthy, arguable one: a React component perhaps should be entirely encapsulated, not affecting anything outside itself. Worth discussing, anyway.

The solution is sadly typical, though. Just grab another component! No interest in what `<Stack>` is actually doing?

How does it solve the problem? Does it use CSS? A single line in the style sheet: `display: flex` or `padding-bottom: 1rem` or something else like that?

This cultural lack of interest is why we have website source code littered with nonsense like `<div class="h1">` and `<div style="position:absolute;">`

I don't think it is fair to blame the tool for the mistakes of the operator. I feel like the real issue is that demand for software developers and specifically web developers is higher than than supply. Which leads to a situation where anyone who can put pixels on the screen, with at least some degree of reliability, will be hired and will put pixels on the screen. And they will choose whatever tool there is.

Another issue is that if look through job postings carefully, you will see the pattern there where framework knoweledge is valued above everything else. It is "React Frontend Developer" or "Vue Frontend Developer", not just "Frontend developer who is capable to pickup whatever technology we use".

There are reasons for that, of course, but it is hard not to see that this approach will likely skew hiring into looking for a specific knowledge in candidates. And candidates are going along with a path of the least resistance and learning stuff they need to work with backwards.

> I don't think it is fair to blame the tool for the mistakes of the operator.

I would ordinarily agree with you. After all, there is nothing inherent about React that prevents responsible HTML and CSS. And there's nothing about vanilla HTML and CSS that particularly encourages good practice, either.

Except. In practice. React abstracts so much away, that what looks like excellent, well-constructed code (in React) can easily compile into a mess that no one will see unless they go looking for it. And, in practice, I've worked with otherwise excellent teams who find my focus on semantics and CSS honestly baffling and "old school".

I think the rest of your analysis is spot on, though

In a nutshell:

    .stack > * + * { margin-top: 1rem; }

Literal laugh out loud. Thanks for that.

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