Episode Details

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk about React State libraries, should you use them, pros, cons, and more!

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01:24 - Context

• Have we used?
  • Scott: Yes
  • Wes: Yes
• Pros
  • Built into React
  • As simple or complex as you want
• Cons
  • Takes effort to optimize
  • Takes effort to plan and organize aka can get out of hand quickly

08:49 - Redux

• Have we used?
  • Scott: Yes
  • Wes: Yes
• Pros
  • Huge user base
  • Legacy of growth and improvements
  • Modern API
  • Even though it’s hard to learn, it has a clear “how to build with it” path
  • Dev tools
• Cons
  • Complex
  • Thing that calls a thing that calls a thing that calls a thing
  • Confusion around what additional packages are needed, e.g. ducks, saga, whatever

17:08 - XState

• Have we used?
  • Scott: Yes
  • Wes: No
• Pros
  • Enforces solid design patterns
  • Very safe
  • Awesome tooling like UI to see state machines
  • https://xstate.js.org/viz/
• Cons
  • Knowledge overhead - having to understand state machines
  • Complex syntax

23:26 - Zustand

• Have we used?
  • Scott: Yes
  • Wes: No
• Pros
  • Fast, scalable, easy to use
  • Simpler
  • No context providers
• Cons
  • Smaller community 2.6k stars on Github
  • Can inform components transiently (with