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Why a React developer used Svelte for an Arcade

Rich Kurtzman on May 19, 2022

If you build websites, you likely have a favorite JavaScript framework you use. And it shouldn’t come as a surprise. Once you learn a specific f...
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Andrew Baisden

Yet to hear many negatives about Svelte everybody who uses it seems to think its great.

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Andrew Baisden

True its still the new kid on the block and the ecosystems is growing plus there are not many jobs available for it yet. But in terms of codebase people have been saying that the syntax is much easier to write.

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Rich Kurtzman

Great insight!

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erikest

I'm currently learning and evaluating front end frameworks for my company so we can make a commitment to modernization and attract and retain good front end developers. I'm looking at React, Angular, Vue and Svelte.

From my understanding, I think react needs a package for everything. Because of the virtual DOM, 'normal' JS libs don't work and thus the logic has to be ported/translated through react dom. Svelte in contrast uses the real DOM, so you can import from many/any existing js library and use them. Lots of libs have you call a function with a selector or element as a parameter to use as the root and then inject all of their particulars from there and that works in svelte. You may have to use lifecycle events in the component to perform the setup, where you'd otherwise use a loaded event and the styles might need a little extra hand holding, but it seems relatively straightforward so far.

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Rich Kurtzman

Maybe worth giving it a shot! Thanks for reading and commenting. Cheers.

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Andrew Baisden

I remember when it was first released it was not that big back then. But now there is more reason to learn it so yes.

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MaadMat

Svelte is worth it and I love how easy it is too, learning curve isnt steep at all.

For someone who is new in frontend development it was easier to try out Svelte.

And Thanks for this beautiful article🤗.

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Rich Kurtzman

Thank you, MaadMat! Happy to hear you have a similar experience with it having not too steep a learning curve.

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Nicolás Danelón

I never read this kind of articles.. but I love this one, thanks

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Rich Kurtzman

Thank you, Nicolas. What do you think made it different from articles like this one?

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Nicolás Danelón

I don't know, but I think I read it because of the title 🤔

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tamusjroyce • Edited

I am still interested in the advantages of progressive web apps like remix on top of react (having reactDOM and digestion loop) to svelte. Progressive means the website works with javascript turned off. But has better features with it on.

I wish remix was built on top of svelte. And svelte ran on deno. Deno’s native extensions makes linting, compiling, testing, and such extremely quick. Javascript code has the same performance. But could get AoT speed ups in the future. Like compiling typescript to web assembly? One can dream.

I think I am a fan of svelte for most cases. But really tied. Both have interesting solutions.

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Chris Boik

Is progressive web app definitely what you meant?

Without JavaScript might be incorrect in describing PWAs unless I'm not up to speed on PWAs.

As far as I understand PWAs make use of service workers, smart caching, offline capabilities where possible. But they do need JS

Very valid points otherwise, I appreciate your point about TS to Web Assembly.

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Andrey Gurtovoy

I have no idea why I read this ad.

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Frank Dana

Indeed. Probably the most egregious is this:

"One of the reasons he used Svelte was because of its high-performance ability, as referenced above. He wanted a lightweight option which could run games in the browser with ease."

...No it isn't. They said so earlier in the article, he used Svelte because THEY ASKED HIM TO. You can't assign someone a development framework and then pretend they chose it for technical reasons.

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Rich Kurtzman

Well, good point. But he was asked to use it because it is lightweight. He/we wanted a lightweight option, which is why Svelte was used.

Sorry if that wasn't clear. Should be noted the article was changed a bit before publishing to sound less like an "ad" and it could've been clearer on my end.

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Rich Kurtzman

Appreciate the read! Sorry you think it was an ad.