RedwoodSDK is a React framework for Cloudflare
We spent a decade rebuilding the browser by hijacking routing, manually syncing state, rebuilding forms and transitions in JavaScript to match native app expectations. Now the browser has caught up. It's time to stop the hacks and build on the web again, but properly.
When a "single-page app" is picked for the tech stack it's not because of performance, it's because of usability: In a previous life, I was an iOS developer, and every year Apple released the Human Interface Guidelines. I read them cover to cover, because they taught you how Apple thought about interaction design. That design philosophy was enforced in the APIs. One of the key principles was view transitions. When a user tapped on a row, the next screen slid into view. It helped users stay oriented. They understood where they came from, and how to go back.
The web didn't offer that. A full page reload meant the new screen just appeared. Users had to mentally stitch the experience together themselves. So as developers, we started hacking around the browser. We invented SPAs. Not because we loved JavaScript, but because we were trying to keep up with user expectations. We were trying to match Apple.
