React I love you, but you're bringing me down (marmelab.com)

Article summary

The article discusses the author's 10-year experience with React, highlighting both its benefits and drawbacks. The author expresses frustration with certain aspects of React, such as its handling of forms, context sensitivity, and the complexity of its hooks. Despite these issues, the author acknowledges React's strengths and the improvements it has brought to frontend development. The article also touches on the author's desire for a more straightforward and efficient framework.

Main themes

• React complexity
• Form management
• State management
• Hooks and side effects
• Alternative frameworks
• Prop drilling
• React ecosystem and community
• Frontend development trends

What commenters say

• React's complexity has led to a need for additional libraries and tools to manage state and side effects.
• Some developers feel that React's hooks are a godsend for composing state, while others argue that they are overly complex and restrictive.
• The use of React Context is often misunderstood as a replacement for Redux, when in fact it is meant for dependency injection.
• Form management libraries such as Formik and react-hook-form have their own strengths and weaknesses, with some developers preferring one over the other.
• Newer frameworks like Svelte and Solid are seen as promising alternatives to React, offering simpler and more efficient solutions.
• Some developers argue that React's hooks are not a full-fledged language and lack control flow, while others see them as a useful API for managing side effects.
• The React community is divided on the use of prop drilling, with some seeing it as an anti-pattern and others finding it useful for simple cases.
• The complexity of React has led to a proliferation of additional tools and libraries, which can be overwhelming for developers to navigate.