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Why don't more developers “use the platform”?

297 points · 314 comments · vinhnx

  1. toddmorey · · focus · HN ↗
    This got to me: > For a certain type of developer, building things yourself is just more fun

    The platform APIs were terrible. React wasn't "more fun"... it just made it possible to do things with the platform that were extremely difficult and cumbersome to get working reliably with platform APIs alone.

    To me, web components were an incredible idea poorly implemented. Most of the minimal adoption happened on top of frameworks like Lit that wrapped WCs to try to make the dev experience tolerable.

    In urban planning they have a concept called "desire paths" where if you don't put sidewalks and pathways in the right places, people invent their own. I feel like the web community has spent a lot of time and effort patching the platform.

    Now credit where credit is due: it has very much improved. And modern standards means it really is time to re-evaluate where and when you need these patches. But don't write off all that annoying and painful effort people put in to trying to making the platform deliver it's promised potential just to "building it yourself is more fun".

    1. r_lee · · focus · HN ↗
      > building things yourself is just more fun

      I can relate to this, but React definitely made things more fun for me at least.

      Web Components on the other hand seemed to solve a problem that few actually were having, or for those that loathe React & modern frameworks because of bloat or whatever

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