Stories from the Blok #7: Intro to Remix with Chance Strickland

In our latest Stories from the Blok, which focused on frameworks, we began with a talk from Chance Strickland. Chance is a software engineer over at Remix Software. He took us through its origins as well as how it can help developers create apps that follow best coding practices. Check out the video below for the full experience or continue reading for a written recap.

Remix started as a passion project by Michael Jackson and Ryan Florence built on the fundamentals of React. However powerful React may be, its creators also saw that it had more potential – specifically, that it could be encouraging better coding practices.

Chance then explained that this is where the Remix philosophy took shape. Embracing a server-client model including the separation of rendering logic from content and data helps to make a smoother and faster development process. It doesn’t work against well-established web foundations like HTML. Instead, it works alongside it, encouraging users to split concerns and rely less on JavaScript as the base of their work. Emulating typical browser behavior like this means that Remix makes it easier to deliver what users expect.

With the core principles of Remix explained, Chance went on to create a sample to-do app. He started by exploring the route directory and covering its variations: different paths, nested routes, layouts, and so on, explaining how they work to create the overall project. Afterward, he shifted to talking about data principles. He demonstrated how to add reading and writing functions to an app.

Finally, he wrapped up by reiterating how Remix leans on existing web standards that in turn lean on underlying APIs that can respond to HTML requests with forms, links, and other actions.

To hear more from Chance, you can check out him and other presenters discussing frontend frameworks on the group panel here.