[V2] RFC : new official implementations choice

[geromegrignon]

To move to the next version of the specs, we need to be able to experiment, test, and showcase changes to the community.

To do so, we need to create a Frontend and a Backend implementation.
Making the community fully part of this project is crucial for us and we want everyone to contribute to it.

Our first move for the next version of the specs is to define which language/library/framework to use for each of those two implementations.

This RFC will stay open for the next 2 months

We have some requirements for maintainable implementations:

Readability

We can't expect everyone to know a defined stack.
But we can work on choosing the best solution to make sure most of us will be able to understand the source code.

This requirement is more about the readability of a language/library/framework than about the way to write code (but we'll value the latter one too)

Simplicity

To use the best of a library/framework isn't a requirement.
It's fine not to use some features to keep it simple and easy to read.
It might even break the rule of readability.

Popularity

The source code must be easy to read.
But it should be easy for people to contribute to the implementation.
Using a popular language/library/framework might be useful.

Maintainability

We want to create these implementations to showcase the specs, not for the sake of using a hyped solution.
We need a stable language/library/framework.

Provide your solution

Do you want to contribute by providing a solution? Please answer this issue by arguing about your solution :

provide examples of the readability
which features would you choose not to use to keep it simple?
give insights about its popularity
explain how stable your solution is

[aisensiy]

To move to the next version of the specs, we need to be able to experiment, test, and showcase changes to the community.

So [V2] means reimplementation of same conduit a improvement of same project with different backend and frontend specification?

[geromegrignon]

Yes, the V2 is still about Conduit and the implementations of the specs.

[aisensiy]

So...what is the detail of new specs?

[geromegrignon]

You will find more information on this pinned issue : #693

Please move any further conversation there as this issue is about the implementations choice.

[lucas-deangelis]

Here are my thoughts about the implementation choice.

Surveys

According to the Stackoverflow 2021 survey the most popular framework for frontend is React, followed by Angular and Vue. For the backend, that would be Express, ASP.NET (core or not), and then Flask/Spring, depending on if you ask professional developers or everyone.

Then there's the State of Developer Ecosystem 2021 by JetBrains, which again put JavaScript on the top. Here the order is React, Vue.js and Angular for the frontend. Sadly they don't have a breakdown by web frameworks in general.

Frontend

So for the frontend, React would seem to be the obvious choice (I use neither of the big three, so I have no dog in this fight). It fits the readability and popularity requirement as it's the most popular frontend framework, and it fits the stability requirement as it's been really stable for the last few years. A caveat would be that React tends to come with a lot of different options for state, CSS, things like that. We could avoid that by sticking to vanilla React as much as possible.

Backend

On the backend, Express would allow using the same language for the frontend and the backend. It fits with the 4 requirements of readability, simplicity, popularity and maintainability. Flask is the same, although Python is less popular than JavaScript in general, but people might want to showcase two different languages. Both have the caveat that they are far from batteries included, but both have an ecosystem to solve the common problems of database access, authentication, etc. From my (limited) experience, Spring Boot is far from simple, but it comes with more solutions out of the box. I have no experience with C# so if people could contribute their views it would be great.

I'd personally favor Express, because that's the most boring choice, in the http://boringtechnology.club/ sense, considering JS is already used on the frontend.

Language

There is a last consideration, which is TypeScript. As we can see in the two surveys, it's also a really popular alternative JS alternative. It works well with React and Express. TS also solves some of the issues with JS. It makes the code more readable and more maintainable. It is less popular than JavaScript, but it will mean that we only have one language across the stack. That will make things easier than any combination of two languages.

Summary

For the reason exposed above, I think React, Express and TypeScript are the way to go.

[geromegrignon]

@lucas-deangelis Thanks for your feedback.

Backend

To fix issues with the current API, I created and deployed a new one (https://realworld-temp-api.herokuapp.com/api).
I used NodeJS + Express + Prisma + Typescript.
I had a great experience using it, and IMHO it fits the requirements.
It's not yet open-sourced (as I can't create repositories in the organization).
I will most probably keep it as the new official implementation choice for the V2.

The Readme will include a section about how to deploy it on Heroku for personal usage.

FrontEnd

I agree about React.
I'll attempt to find a good balance to make it both modern and easily readable.
Among other things, I want to make sure JSX isn't a mess to understand for people discovering it.