[1]Tom MacWright

tom@macwright.com

[2]Tom MacWright

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Is there really a way to push back on the complexity of the web?

2024-11-16

I found myself browsing through [10]flamework, a Flickr-style framework
developed by some of the developers who developed Flickr, including the
legendary [11]Aaron Straup Cope and [12]Cal Henderson, who went on to co-found
Slack and presumably make a billion dollars. And I was reading [13]Mu-An’s
thing about JavaScript. She is legendary as one of the brains behind GitHub and
tasteful and clever uses of HTML, JavaScript, and Web Components. And following
along with [14]Alex Russell critiquing Bluesky’s frontend.

I’ve been overall [15]bad, because I, like you am living through a bad era and
throwing yet another take onto the pile is cringe for both of us - [16]who am I
to speak, who are you to listen? Anyway:

  • React, on a daily basis, is livable but annoying. The level of complexity
    is sky-high, even when I spend a lot of energy trying to limit that
    complexity.
  • On the other hand, the level of complexity of web applications is pretty
    high. User expectations are different, I keep saying. Flickr was fantastic,
    but it was not a realtime-updating website that optimized for the browsing
    habits of the youth, who spend a half-second on most content. I love
    GitHub, but there is a reason why people are using Linear more and more:
    Linear feels like a realtime desktop application while GitHub feels like a
    website.
  • I just can’t summon the clarity or oomph required to critique this stuff
    anymore. Everything is, like, a trickle-down consequence of requirements
    and culture and history, man! Pointing fingers at some software developer
    or whatever, is neither all that accurate nor that effective. What’s the
    point? To make people feel bad? Most people are trapped in their technical
    decisions by several layers of management anyway. And people already feel
    bad!
  • Man, the web platform is not that great. I keep wanting it to be great, but
    half the time when I think that knowing about some HTML element will save
    me from having to use a React thingamabob that adds 50kb to my bundle… that
    HTML element just isn’t it, man! I need to style those select elements, or
    lazy-load that details element, or implement some implementation-wise
    horrible but essential-for-the-product scroll or focus or style experience
    which is just a little too much to implement with just CSS hacks.
  • Honestly, the parts of GitHub that have moved from Ruby on Rails to React
    are mostly, in my experience, worse now. GitHub issues might be slightly
    fancier with a few extra features, but there are noticeable loading
    flickers and plenty of new bugs, like hovercards that don’t go away.
  • That said, and I have to keep repeating this, user expectations are
    changing. People are used to apps, not websites. They are surprised if
    every view that they see is not realtime-updating. Linear and [17]Pierre
    see this and [18]are making modern-style alternatives with realtime
    subscriptions and local-first stuff and heavy client apps.
  • I don’t think everything should be a React app! I want more things to be
    like Flickr used to be, and GitHub used to be. But at the same time, I
    don’t see an obvious way out of the current dynamics. Yelling is popular
    but the track record isn’t very good. Being quietly annoyed about the web’s
    descent into complexity, my preferred approach, doesn’t work very well
    either. A few organizations are bucking the trend - [19]Kagi, for example,
    has good JavaScript-lite frontends. [20]Reddit has [21]gone web components
    and it seems like an improvement.


References:

[1] https://macwright.com/
[2] https://macwright.com/
[3] https://macwright.com/writing/
[4] https://macwright.com/reading/
[5] https://macwright.com/photos/
[6] https://macwright.com/projects/
[7] https://macwright.com/drawings/
[8] https://macwright.com/micro/
[9] https://macwright.com/about/
[10] https://github.com/exflickr/flamework
[11] https://www.aaronstraupcope.com/
[12] https://www.iamcal.com/
[13] https://muan.co/posts/javascript
[14] https://bsky.app/profile/infrequently.org/post/3lay2jro2i22a
[15] https://www.are.na/block/23792815
[16] https://youtu.be/zpVC2hmejko?si=iZGN0UphiOSU2NUU&t=63
[17] https://pierre.co/
[18] https://docs.pierre.co/changelog/local-first
[19] https://kagi.com/
[20] https://www.reddit.com/
[21] https://macwright.com/2024/10/19/reddit-is-my-wc-reference-point