Very straight-to-point article. Really worth time reading. Thank you! But tools are just the instruments for the UX designers. The knowledge of the design tools are as important as the creation of the design strategy.
LC
Léhan Coetzee
15 Jun 2024
React 18 Released: Concurrent Mode and Automatic Batching
React 18 has officially been released, introducing major new features such as Concurrent Mode and Automatic Batching, aimed at improving the performance and usability of the popular JavaScript library.
React, the widely used JavaScript library for building user interfaces, has reached a new milestone with the release of version 18. This latest release brings significant enhancements designed to optimize performance and enhance the developer experience. Among the most notable features are Concurrent Mode and Automatic Batching.
Concurrent Mode is a game-changing feature in React 18. It enables React to prepare multiple versions of the UI at the same time, allowing for smoother and more responsive user interactions. By rendering components in a non-blocking manner, Concurrent Mode ensures that the UI remains responsive even during complex updates. This results in a more fluid user experience, particularly for applications with heavy rendering requirements.
Automatic Batching is another significant addition in React 18. Previously, React would batch state updates within event handlers, but updates outside of event handlers would be processed separately. With Automatic Batching, React now batches all state updates, regardless of where they occur. This change reduces the number of renders, leading to improved performance and more efficient updates.
React 18 also introduces a new `startTransition` API, which allows developers to mark certain updates as "transitions." Transitions are lower-priority updates that can be interrupted if more urgent updates, such as user interactions, occur. This API provides finer control over rendering priorities, enabling developers to create more responsive applications.
Another notable feature in React 18 is the `useDeferredValue` hook. This hook lets developers defer updating a value until the browser has time to process it, improving performance for large or expensive computations. By deferring updates, `useDeferredValue` helps maintain a responsive UI even when dealing with heavy data processing.
React 18 also includes improvements to the server-side rendering (SSR) capabilities. The new SSR architecture supports streaming and selective hydration, allowing parts of the application to be progressively hydrated as they load. This results in faster page loads and a more seamless user experience.
The React team has worked closely with the community to ensure that the upgrade process to React 18 is smooth and straightforward. Comprehensive documentation and migration guides are available to help developers transition their applications to the new version without disruption.
As developers begin to adopt React 18, we can expect to see a wave of new and enhanced applications leveraging these powerful features. The release of React 18 underscores the library's commitment to staying at the forefront of UI development and delivering cutting-edge tools for building modern web applications.