HTML Web Components

Also see A year working with HTML Web Components, which is more on the implementation side of things.

The grain of a React component is not the grain of a web component. Their design prioritize different functionality and forms of use. If you try to use one like the other, you’ll fight the direction of their natural grain. Web components have their own grain and it favors enhancement over replacement.

Rather than an empty “shell component” that takes data and (using JavaScript exclusively) renders the entirety of its contents, web components encourage an approach of composing core content with HTML and then wrapping it in a custom element that enhances its contents with additional functionality.

Augmentative approaches work best on the web because 1) the web’s grain encourages enhancement to improve resilience, and 2) that’s really the best way to iteratively change something as big as the web.