This reads more like "ditch Next.js" for traditional SSR.

A good SPA has a lot of benefits. Because it can be interactive like a native app. It can only use those benefits, if it is interactive to some extent (like gmail or google docs). Smooth navigation is a very bad reason for picking a SPA.

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varenc 4 days ago | parent [-]

What do you mean by 'interactive like a native app'? The article is focusing on two main parts of making things feel like an app: page view transitions and speed/preloading. To me, those seem like a big part of what makes a site/app feel interactive. And letting the browser do the work and having real URLs has other huge benefits I appreciate.

But agree that for things like GMail, etc, a SPA approach definitely makes sense. I just think most SPA sites I come across aren't in that category.

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nfw2 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

Those aren't the main parts of feeling like an app. Feeling like an app means taking an action doesn't load a new page. Feeling like an app means the concept of a page mostly goes away.

	▲	varenc 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		I guess that's my point. With instant loading thanks to preload and smooth view transitions, taking an action, while actually loading a new page, shouldn't feel like loading a new page. Should be indistinguishable from a SPA action. At least that's the theory. There might be other tells that degrade the experience, but not sure what they are?

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andix 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Imagine Gmail, ChatGPT, Slack, and so on as server side rendered websites, but with smooth transitions. This wouldn't work at all.

Let's take slack as an example. We had those chat websites 20 years ago. The thread was in it's own frame and got periodically reloaded. It's just bad UX.

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strken 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

I think you're using "single-page app as opposed to no or limited JS on the client" while an alternative would be "single-page app as opposed to multi-page app". There's no reason you have to implement something like Slack by reloading an iframe.

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andix 4 days ago | parent [-]

Not reloading the document via HTTP while updating the content is the definition of a SPA.

	▲	strken 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		I would argue that the line between an SPA and not is blurred. Consider progressive enhancement; or, per the Slack example, pages with content that's updated dynamically but which rely on reloading a whole page for navigation. I would even argue that passing snippets of HTML around like e.g. Hotwire is still a middle ground.

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epolanski 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

You are extremely confused, you can absolutely have client side JavaScript in a website and poll or stream whatever you want like chats.

It has nothing to do with being a static website or an SPA, nothing.