React "compiler" is in fact a transpiler, which is a very common thing in JS.
>React is full of magic syntax that looks like functions
Full of magic syntax meaning 5 straightforward hooks? Surely they are not true free-form JavaScript, but at least the syntax itself is not turned into a DSL
https://react.dev/learn/react-compiler/introduction#what-doe...
The React cinematic universe has a habit of repurposing existing terminology, but they're both transpilers, to the extent that "transpiler" is even a word.
It appears that I was wrong about the definition of transpilation. It's a specific term for a compiler that compiles from a high-level language to another high-level language, even when those languages are the same with no DSL and even when the logic is optimized.
I stand corrected.
Yes, all transpilers are compilers, but not all compilers are transpilers.
`useEffect` is straightforward? Cloudflare recently (like, literally 4 days ago)[1] had a pretty big outage because of the improper use of `useEffect` (surprise, surprise, it was the dependency array), a hook so infamous if you search "When should I use `useEffect`" you'll get approximately 9 trillion hits, with nearly all of them telling you something different, including Dan Abramov himself having to chip in with multiple blog posts telling people to NOT use it because of how much of a dumpster fire of a API it is.
[1] https://blog.cloudflare.com/deep-dive-into-cloudflares-sept-...
Also I just want to point out again that Dan Abramov had to write an insanely long guide to using useEffect [1]. This piece is around 10k words explaining in-depth how useEffect works. That is insane for one of the fundamental, core methods exposed by a library.
You become reliant on all your ancestors doing the right thing, in every situation, forevermore. One mistake and unstable references cascade everywhere. The surface for introducing errors is huge, esp in a large, complex codebase. And we have no way to guarantee a stable reference.
useEffect usage needs to die, yes. I don't think it's a case against React, given its age.
Otherwise, using React is straightforward. I started coding in it without reading any docs. As someone who used Dojo, prototype, ext.js, jQuery (+UI), Backbone.js, knockout (still has a special place), Mithril, the classic angular, vue (2), svelte, Marko and even Solid (I'm not totally sold on signals), React is the most straightforward by a mile.
Is it the most performant? Hell no. Is it the one with the least gotchas/warts? Nope. Concise? A giant no. Batteries included? It depends on what you're looking for...
But I can just be productive with it, and it makes sense.
You saying you can be productive in react is just ironic. I just read it as, I can be employable using React.