[HN Gopher] RSC for Astro Developers
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RSC for Astro Developers
Author : feross
Score : 27 points
Date : 2025-05-06 03:47 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (overreacted.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (overreacted.io)
| brudgers wrote:
| Astro is _The web framework for content-driven websites_.
|
| https://github.com/withastro/astro
| betterThanTexas wrote:
| > The web framework for content-driven websites.
|
| As opposed to those driven by, what, random-number generators?
| ameliaquining wrote:
| I think this means, as opposed to rich interactive web apps
| where everything interesting happens after the initial page
| load.
| betterThanTexas wrote:
| I have no clue how you discerned this from the description,
| but I'd like to understand more. What can you point to on
| your computer that isn't "content"?
| pcthrowaway wrote:
| Interactive UI components aren't content, though they
| might affect content delivery.
|
| For example, a Javascript+HTML game might be itself
| considered content, but within the game the game elements
| and controls (mouse, player characters, NPCs, keyboard
| bindings) wouldn't be considered content, whereas images
| and dialog text might reasonably considered content
| again.
| betterThanTexas wrote:
| I don't see why interactive UI is any less content than
| anything else delivered over the wire. How would you
| express a website without it?
|
| it almost seems like the word "content" is intended to
| connote "profitable and dynamically-loaded assets". Why
| you would not use that phrase is a mystery.
|
| I suppose that "dynamically-loadable asset creator" isn't
| a great marketing pitch from the perspective of artists.
| azangru wrote:
| > I have no clue how you discerned this from the
| description, but I'd like to understand more.
|
| One way of understanding the meaning of a dubious phrase
| is examining its use in context. For example, one of the
| pages of the Astro docs begins as follows:
|
| "Astro is the web framework for building content-driven
| websites like blogs, marketing, and e-commerce" [0]
|
| Ok; so we have our prototypes -- or, as Jason Miller
| would call them, holotypes -- of the mysterious "content-
| driven websites". They are blogs, marketing sites, or
| e-commerce sites.
|
| Another way of understanding the meaning of a confusing
| phrase is hearing the distinction explained by the
| creator of the framework. In early podcasts, when Astro
| was still mostly unknown, Fred Schott explained that it
| was not intended for building something like Figma, or
| Photoshop, or Facebook, or Youtube; but rather something
| like blogs or magazines; although primarily he was
| probably targeting the creators of e-commerce websites,
| because those were the ones that could bring in money.
|
| [0] https://docs.astro.build/en/concepts/why-astro/
| betterThanTexas wrote:
| > "Astro is the web framework for building content-driven
| websites like blogs, marketing, and e-commerce" [0]
|
| Ok, but opposed to what? What does a non-content oriented
| website look like? Is a website itself not simply
| content?
|
| > Fred Schott explained that it was not intended for
| building something like Figma, or Photoshop, or Facebook,
| or Youtube
|
| Perhaps their tagline should be "we aren't oriented
| around building single page websites unlike all those
| other frameworks". I never would have understood that
| Figma, Photoshop, and Youtube were not content-oriented
| websites otherwise. "Content" is mostly not a meaningful
| phrase outside of a context which gives it meaning (i.e.
| it is a floating signifier).
| azangru wrote:
| Sure, content is anything a container contains :-) My
| point was though that when a dictionary definition gives
| an unsatisfactory reading of a sentence, then perhaps
| other, indirect methods should be employed to tease the
| meaning out.
| naet wrote:
| There are "content" driven websites which are things like
| blogs, marketing / brochure style sites, documentation sites,
| etc. They are driven by content that is authored by the
| website owners that can then be cached or is not frequently
| updated by end users or external data.
|
| Then there are sites that are more application driven or
| service driven. Stuff like a messaging client, social media,
| streaming service, eCommerce, or other full on interactive
| web app. They tend to be more data driven or dependent on end
| users, and less static content.
|
| That is frequently how the word content is used in the
| context of web development. You might have heard of a CMS or
| content management system. It's not the same as someone using
| the word content like social media "content creator".
| insin wrote:
| Former Gatsby users know where they were on the day they freed
| themselves from that flaky image processing pipeline piped
| through GraphQL (they were at their computer).
|
| There's no evidence for this, but it's a scientific fact that
| Astro has five 9s... in its net promoter score.
| skeptrune wrote:
| Only reason why I would use RSC's over Astro is to share context
| between islands. There's no other major benefit.
|
| Also, nit, but I wish this article explicitly mentioned and
| explained Astro's "code fence" idea. It's demarcates the boundary
| between server and client _much_ more clearly than React 's 'use
| client'.
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