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by hardwaresofton 3007 days ago
I should have looked up HOC before I wrote that bit -- Higher Order Components do not seem like a particuarly bad design decision, but IIRC this pattern was introduced somewhere around the launch of React 16?

Also, I'm not sure the characterization as a factory is correct, seems closer to higher order functions (at the very least name wise), and/or enhancing features by composition.
2 comments
spicyj 3007 days ago
Higher order components have been a common pattern since early 2015. https://medium.com/@dan_abramov/mixins-are-dead-long-live-hi... (And like others said, they are relatively simple and draw heavily on prior principles in functional programming.)
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sibeliuss 3007 days ago
Components are just functions -- HOC's are higher order functions. The pattern dropped out like all patterns drop out -- from use. Its nothing specific to React, but to functional programming
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hardwaresofton 3007 days ago
Just replied in the other spot -- I understand the similarities now, but I think this points to react still not being as simple as it could be -- if components were really as simple as being functions from state to UI, reacts API would be drastically smaller.

My point is that it's not that simple (for better or for worse, some of the added complexity in the API IS essential IMO), but people still say things like "components are just functions" like it really is that simple.

For example: https://reactjs.org/docs/react-component.html#static-getderi...

This note:

> Note that if a parent component causes your component to re-render, this method will be called even if props have not changed. You may want to compare new and previous values if you only want to handle changes.

Things like that are indications of hidden complexity, in my experience.

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danabramov 3007 days ago
To be fair if a function gets called, any functions called from it also... get called (whether arguments to them have changed or not).

So if anything, this particular example speaks more to React components being “just functions” (which is a statement I disagree with—but I don’t think this example is very relevant to that).

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sibeliuss 3005 days ago
It just seems like your misunderstandings are preventing you from understanding React properly, and that those misunderstandings could be rectified by more experience with the library. Learning is inherently difficult but sometimes its best to trust in the process and dive in :)
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