Performance without Compromise: React.js for TV UIs | Hacker News Reader

Performance without Compromise: React.js for TV UIs

techblog.netflix.com

66 pointsmorgante9 comments

I think MithrilJS has the best trade-offs. You get insane speed without insane complications.

I dread ever having to write ReactJS again as the entire setup is quite gross. The sliver of speed in ReactJS is not worth the bloat.

I hadn't seen MithrilJS before. It looks great. It makes me wonder what kind of voodoo I'd be capable of if I combined it with Nim[0].

[0]: https://hookrace.net/blog/what-is-special-about-nim/#compile...

As an user let me tell you what I think : React sucks. Watching this I'm asking myself about what I'm enduring today because of some js paradigms and developper happiness : my worst user experiences on the Internet today are on Facebook (Where I need 5-to 6 seconds to see my notifications) and Coursera (where I could wait a minute before a page is displayed after a click ) So my experiences with React are pretty negatives now. If anyone a has a posterchild to recommend me so I can reconsider this framework I'm open.

React is very, very fast. Among the fastest UI libraries and frameworks that exist for front-end development. Whatever performance woes you have on Facebook or Coursera would more than likely have to do with server-related latency. To see a comparison of various JS libraries and how they stack up, Auth0 did a great benchmark including Virtual DOM, Angular 1 & 2, React, and more: https://auth0.com/blog/2016/01/07/more-benchmarks-virtual-do...

For front-end _web_ development.

Unless I've missed something, Native UIs can still run circles around browser UIs.

You're not missing anything. I switch back and forth between game development and web development and what the web guys see as 'fast' is underwhelming to a game developer.

The interesting part here is how far web devs are bending over backwards to accommodate the weaknesses of the DOM. I wonder how much longer it's going to be before we go full circle and browsers natively support something similar to WPF or Flex.

As another user and developer: Developers sometimes do a poor job, no matter what technologies they are using.

Neither of the services you mention I'm a big user of, so not sure what to say about those. But I do agree that a lot of services that are using React, are still slow. But the thing is, it's hardly Reacts fault. If they used Backbone or Angular, it would still suck.

I think the best examples of React is the sites where you don't really realize it's using React. It's like 3D graphics in movies. People never say "Oooh, those animations/vfx where so good", because if it's good, you don't notice it. However, if it's bad, it's very obvious.

For a list of some websites/apps that are using React, take a look here: https://github.com/facebook/react/wiki/Sites-Using-React

Ps, if you try to use React as a framework, you're not gonna be able. React is just one part of the puzzle. Other than the view layer, you have to figure out the other pieces.

I find that a lot of Angular apps are pretty badly composed... The use of one better option doesn't fix when you don't understand when/how/why to apply a given paradigm or architecture.

I'm fighting with this daily... :-( (passively looking for a new job because of it, frustrated)

Ok "React sucks" is dumb and I deserved the downvotes. But I believe the UX is the great missing piece of the React ecosystem and theses videos are the first I see tackling the problem (though they're approaching it through the device angle)

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