React Bias

HTML Web Components: An Example - Jim Nielsen’s Blog

Here’s an excellent case study of an HTML web component. Jim starts by showing how you’d create the component in React; then he shows how you’d do it as a JavaScript web component; finally he shows the way to do it as an HTML web component:

The point is we’re starting with a baseline, core experience that will provide basic functionality and content to a wide array of user agents before any JavaScript is required.

Once you’ve done everything you can in vanilla HTML to provide core elements of your baseline experience, you can begin enhancing the existing markup with additional functionality.

This is where HTML web components shine.

The Industrial Hammer Complex

Coincidentally, I was just talking about hammers and nails in another context.

Progressive enhancement used to be a standard approach. Then React came along and didn’t support that approach. So, folks stopped talking about that and focused entirely on JS-centric client solutions. A few years later and now folks are talking about progressive enhancement again, under the new name of “islands”.

What is going on here?

It turns out, it’s the same old thing. Vendors peddling their wares. When Facebook introduced React, that act transformed the font-end space into a hype-driven, cult-of-personality disaster zone where folks could profit from creating the right image and narrative. I observed that it particularly preyed on the massive influx of young web developers. Facebook had finally found the silver bullet of Web Development, or so they claimed! Just adopt our tech, no questions asked, and you too can be a rock star making six figures! We’ve been living through this mess for ten years now.

The cosmic ballet goes on.

How to (not) make a button - Tomas Pustelnik’s personal website

A demonstration of how even reinventing a relatively simple wheel takes way more effort than it’s worth when you could just use what the brower gives you for free.

as days pass by — Hammer and nails

We don’t give people a website any more: something that already works, just HTML and CSS and JavaScript ready to show them what they want. Instead, we give them the bits from which a website is made and then have them compile it.

Spot-on description of “modern” web development. When did this become tolerable, much less normal?

Web developers: maybe stop insisting that your users compile your apps for you? Or admit that you’ll put them through an experience that you certainly don’t tolerate on your own desktops, where you expect to download an app, not to be forced to compile it every time you run it?

CSS Architecture for Modern JavaScript Applications - MadeByMike

Mike sees the church of JS-first ignoring the lessons to be learned from the years of experience accumulated by CSS practitioners.

As the responsibilities of front-end developers have become more broad, some might consider the conventions outlined here to be not worth following. I’ve seen teams spend weeks planning the right combination of framework, build tools, workflows and patterns only to give zero consideration to the way they architect UI components. It’s often considered the last step in the process and not worthy of the same level of consideration.

It’s important! I’ve seen well-planned project fail or go well over budget because the UI architecture was poorly planned and became un-maintainable as the project grew.