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I just hated React with passion and then I spent significant time with Svelte a few years basically to appreciate how much better React is.

Svelte had one edge - compiled code making surgical DOM updates. React has a compiler too and if you ever have opened Facebook or Instrgram, all that UI is compiled by a React compiler already.[0]

[0]. https://react.dev/learn/react-compiler

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> if you ever have opened Facebook or Instrgram, all that UI is compiled by a React compiler already.

Is that supposed to be a selling point?

The real strength of React is that each component is a function which is an easier mental model than the spaghetti code Svelte componets turn into with special syntax which isn't even Javascript.

Right, it’s HTML. It’s a bit like JSX but not embedded.

I also find arguments like this quite weak. YouTube, Facebook et al work like absolute horseshit compared to other websites and web apps. If anything, they proof that these big companies manage to make simple web applications as bloated and slow as possible.

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