Why Everyone Loves Zustand

Summary

In this video, the host discusses 'zustand,' a popular state management library for React, emphasizing its straightforward API and efficiency, especially when compared to Redux. They share their experience refactoring an app called 'Teemo' to use 'zustand,' highlighting the ease of use and performance benefits. The host also addresses common challenges, such as handling side effects and type safety with TypeScript, and compares 'zustand' with other state management patterns like React Context and Recoil. The video is both educational and entertaining, providing practical insights into modern React development.

Takeaways

• 😅 The presenter humorously addresses their mispronunciation of 'zustand' and engages the audience with a light-hearted story about community reactions.
• 📚 The video aims to explore why 'zustand' has become a community favorite for state management in React applications.
• 🛠️ 'Zustand' is a lightweight state management library that simplifies the Flux pattern, similar to how Redux simplified it, but even further.
• 🔍 The presenter refactors an app named 'Teemo' to use 'zustand' to demonstrate its practicality and compare it with other state management approaches.
• 📉 'Zustand' is significantly smaller in size compared to Redux, with its npm package being only 3.1 kilobytes minified.
• 🔄 The refactoring process from React context to 'zustand' was relatively straightforward in many cases, highlighting 'zustand's ease of use.
• 🛑 The presenter encountered challenges when refactoring components that relied on React context to work with 'zustand', emphasizing the need for careful consideration when sharing components across different state management strategies.
• 🔄 'Zustand' allows for side effects and asynchronous operations to be handled elegantly, diverging from the traditional middleware and promise chain approaches.
• 🎯 The use of 'zustand' can prevent unnecessary component re-renders by selectively updating state and using selectors to subscribe to specific state changes.
• 🌟 The presenter concludes that 'zustand' is a well-thought-out, approachable library for state management in React, especially for those already familiar with Redux and the Flux pattern.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video script?

The main topic of the video script is discussing the state management library Zustand, its pronunciation, and its usage in a React application.

Why does the speaker want to settle the pronunciation of 'Zustand'?

The speaker wants to settle the pronunciation of 'Zustand' because their chat is upset with them for mispronouncing it, and they found a poll on the React subreddit indicating confusion among developers.

What is the relationship between Zustand and Redux?

Zustand is a state management library for React that is based on the Flux pattern, similar to Redux, but it simplifies the pattern even further than Redux does.

How does the speaker describe the size of the Zustand library compared to React and Redux?

The speaker mentions that Zustand's npm package is only 3.1 kilobytes minified, making it 44 times smaller than the base React package and 13 times smaller than Redux.

What is the 'Teemo' application mentioned in the script?

Teemo is a sample app used in the script to demonstrate the refactoring process to use Zustand for state management. It has three screens: one for logging in, one for viewing and changing time entries, and one with a timer for creating new time entries.

Why did the speaker refactor the 'Teemo' app?

The speaker refactored the 'Teemo' app to use Zustand to experiment with and demonstrate the library's capabilities in practice, comparing it to other state management approaches.

What was the issue the speaker encountered when trying to handle side effects in Zustand?

The speaker was initially stumped by how to handle side effects in Zustand, particularly how to run an action immediately after the store is declared, as the docs only explained using middleware that comes with the library and not how to write custom middleware.

How does Zustand handle asynchronous operations according to the script?

Zustand handles asynchronous operations by allowing actions to be run in a synchronous context without middleware or promise chains, simply by calling 'set' with the result.

What is the benefit of using Zustand's generated hooks as mentioned in the script?

The benefit of using Zustand's generated hooks is that they are easy to get started with and can be fine-tuned to prevent unnecessary renders, making them suitable for managing state that needs to be shared across several parts of a React app.

What is the 'Point Manders Collective' mentioned at the end of the script?

The 'Point Manders Collective' is a group that includes Zustand and Jotai as part of their projects. They are known for contributing significantly to the React ecosystem with various libraries and solutions.