[Go Make Things] Unwieldy code bases

By rahmat hidayat

Monday, March 17, 2025

​ I am consistently finding that React makes large code bases more unwieldy, not less. It's a pattern I've seen over-and-over again with multiple clients. The same issues that React allegedly "prevents" over more traditional methods just get repeated, because those issues are people problems, not code problems. Repeating yourself instead of creating reusable functions. Code that's hard to read. Lack of documentation. The same tasks handled multiple ways. Inconsistent authoring styles. That all still happens! Only now, because you've added this complex layer over your work, you also have to deal with… Code that's harder to debug. Chasing errors through a deep dependency tree. Code that would be easy without a library but is hard because of quirks of how React works (for example, running code after the UI updates). Performance issues. And this isn't just a React problem. React potentially encourages it more than some other libraries, but you can swap in Vue or Angular or whatever and these same statements hold true. But none of these issues are strictly technical ones. Fixing them requires establishing developer norms, then enforcing them through social conventions and pre-commit processes that catch issues early. That's not nearly as "wave a magic wand" as tools like React promise to be, but it is a lot more effective. Like this? A Go Make Things membership is the best way to support my work and help me create more free content. Cheers, Chris ​ Want to share this with others or read it later? View it in a browser.​ ​

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