Issue #4: The Times They Are A-Changin

🎵 Come gather ‘round people, wherever you roam, and admit that the waters around you have grown. 🎵

The world of metaframeworks is in constant flux – new tools, migrations, and trends emerge at a dizzying pace. But not every change is worth chasing, and not every opinion is worth following. In this issue, we’ll explore how to navigate these shifts without falling into the trap of FOMO or blindly following the mainstream. Instead of rushing to adopt the latest trend, let’s focus on building knowledge, honing our experience, and thinking critically about what truly matters. After all, the best way to face change is to be prepared – not just with tools, but with wisdom. Let’s dive in!

The Good

Reading is always the best way to spend your time (that’s probably why you’re here now!), so I want to start today’s issue with a new edition of the excellent online book called “The Framework Field Guide” by Corbin Crutchley. It invites you to dive into the world of the three main JavaScript frameworks (React, Angular, and Vue) simultaneously. Why is this a curious read for someone interested in metaframeworks? It’s obvious – because this trio forms the basis for a good half of the mainstream metaframeworks list. In addition to exploring the mechanics of these frameworks, Corbin digs into their corresponding tooling ecosystems, which can be very insightful if you want to compare the approaches taken by different corners of the JavaScript world.

Another great update from last week is the new version of Storybook, the ultimate tool for building your component library, no matter which metaframework or framework you use. Version 8.5 brings significant improvements to one of Storybook’s most exciting features lately: component testing. Specifically, it introduces some cool ways to integrate accessibility testing into your workflow. This tool is one of those things you can take with you no matter what JavaScript technology you work with, and its value is hard to overestimate.

The Bad

Weeks go by, but hardly a single one passes without someone sharing their harsh experience with React. This time, Kelly Sutton shares their retrospective on moving their project away from React to a simpler and more robust stack. As usual, this opinion is quite controversial, but there are plenty of thoughtful insights here.

The server doing something useful is a requirement for building an interesting business. The client doing something is often a nice-to-have.

I’d say this is true until it’s not. Kelly offers a good perspective on SSR with the Ruby on Rails stack, which I’m quite familiar with and personally consider clunky and not very developer-friendly (or user-friendly, for that matter). However, I can totally agree that it’s robust and ergonomic compared to some popular modern metaframeworks. No matter which bandwagon you’re on, remember two things: (1) not everything can be measured by the number of files in your codebase, and (2) there are multiple ways to cut corners, and not all of them require you to suffer.

And speaking of suffering, Reddit subs blew up with complaints about the hurdles of another big migration this year: Tailwind CSS reached v4! You may love or hate utility CSS frameworks, but you can’t deny they’ve secured a solid place in our lives – especially Tailwind, which is loved for its quick solutions to UI problems and its many integrations that allow you to build web apps in record time, often paired with a metaframework. If you’re wondering why I put this news in the “Bad” section, you might have guessed already that I’m not a Tailwind fanboy. I’m more of a proponent of “using the platform” (not to a chest-tattoo level, but still). For me, this news means a new wave of interest in [arguably] ugly template pollution and more developers spending huge amounts of time learning another DSL-driven abstraction layer instead of reading MDN. But as a metaframework enthusiast, I accept that “you do you,” and Tailwind is inevitable, even for many of us. So I’m joining the celebration and the relearning party.

The Noteworthy

The Cloudflare Radar caught my attention for the first time. It’s a collection of insights from one of the biggest platforms for all things Internet-related. There are quite a few interesting observations for us as metaframework researchers. The most surprising to me was the significant share some metaframeworks (looking at you, N-guys! 😉) have in Cloudflare’s worldwide traffic distribution and website usage.

And even if you don’t use JavaScript metaframeworks, it’s not too late to join the mainstream. One funny tool I came across last week is the Google Translate for programming languages. So if you’re a loyal Go fanboy (the most popular API client language according to Cloudflare, just in case), you can quickly rewrite some of your microservice’s business logic in TypeScript and build an awesome metaframework-based app the way the youngsters do.

But in fact, no matter which technology you use, it’s important to remember not to get too carried away by shiny new ideas. Keep your sanity under control to avoid disappointment and future migrations to RoR or PHP tools (or anything else wrapped into two letters – it’s obviously and literally a hint that it’s a trap eventually!).

👋