I... don’t make something a shared component until I’ve copied and pasted it four times... This would lead to components with awkward and bloated APIs from other developers trying to adapt it to their needs.
The problems with this are:
Your duplicated code likely has minor updates in each iteration, instead of refininements to a 'common component'. Now it is more difficult to unify them.
If you needed the same functionality 4 times, it's likely other team devs did as well. Since there was no common component, each had to reinvent the wheel, each time with different API's. Now it's very difficult to unify all these components to use the same common one, along with all their tests. This is so much work that it usually is never done, and the duplicated code remains, complicating future enhancements and maintenance.
I find it best to create common components as early as possible, then encourage reuse rather that duplication, (DRY). Common components should evolve as new needs arise; this is agile coding! Even heavily used libraries like MaterialUI are updated regularly, so your own 'library' of components should be as well.
Good code reviews can prevent overcomplicating common components. Guidelines like the ones in this article, along with app standards, also help keep API's simple and consistent across an app. It's easier to refactor a common component occasionally than to replace totally different implementations of the same functionality.
I’m a front-end developer and designer based in Fort Worth, TX with a passion for web technologies, inclusivity, and Texas BBQ. I currently help make the space that comes from The Container Store.
I agree that good code reviews can prevent over complicating common components, but I’m not as concerned with reinventing the wheel, at least not at first. I believe components need to earn their right to exist, and by the time they have earned this right, you typically have a good starting point for an API, and a good reviewer can pick this out.
Also, in my experience, if I am having difficulty unifying components into a common component, there’s a good chance they aren’t as common as I might have originally thought. I may be better served in extracting out common related logic into a helper function or hook.
With the projects I work on at work, I tend to fall on the side of making code as disposable as possible, so take what I’m with a grain of salt. I am very hard on what makes its way into our shared common components.
Honestly, whatever works for you is great, especially since this is one of those areas where it depends a lot on the context of the work.
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The problems with this are:
I find it best to create common components as early as possible, then encourage reuse rather that duplication, (DRY). Common components should evolve as new needs arise; this is agile coding! Even heavily used libraries like MaterialUI are updated regularly, so your own 'library' of components should be as well.
Good code reviews can prevent overcomplicating common components. Guidelines like the ones in this article, along with app standards, also help keep API's simple and consistent across an app. It's easier to refactor a common component occasionally than to replace totally different implementations of the same functionality.
I agree that good code reviews can prevent over complicating common components, but I’m not as concerned with reinventing the wheel, at least not at first. I believe components need to earn their right to exist, and by the time they have earned this right, you typically have a good starting point for an API, and a good reviewer can pick this out.
Also, in my experience, if I am having difficulty unifying components into a common component, there’s a good chance they aren’t as common as I might have originally thought. I may be better served in extracting out common related logic into a helper function or hook.
With the projects I work on at work, I tend to fall on the side of making code as disposable as possible, so take what I’m with a grain of salt. I am very hard on what makes its way into our shared common components.
Honestly, whatever works for you is great, especially since this is one of those areas where it depends a lot on the context of the work.