skidding

Yes, Cosmos is very similar to Storybook. It's also older, and I'm only saying this because I'm tired of getting asked how does it differ. Both projects provide an isolated component environment to help tackle complexity in single page apps. The difference boils down to setup compatibility and personal taste.

I'm not gonna lie, some of the comments are tough to process, but what can you do. I still appreciate all feedback and as usual I'll try to incorporate it as best as I can.

Comment · 5 years ago

> it seems like this creates a webpage that you can use to speed up iteration on your components?

Pretty accurate. Cosmos is an isolated component environment. You can load components separately for regular development, as well as for automated visual regression testing.

> What else does this do? What problem does it solve? How does it solve that? Saying it solves "Reusable components" is pretty generic, could use some expansion on how it actually helps in this regard.

I get that it's confusing, but the landing page literally addresses this:

- "Develop one component at a time. Isolate the UI you're working on and iterate quickly. Reloading your whole app on every change is slowing you down!"

- "Bookmark component states, from blank states to edge cases. Your component library keeps you organized and provides a solid foundation of test cases."

Scroll down and it goes into more detail in 6 concise paragraphs.

> The live demo doesn't really work on mobile

That's true. But you can't really develop React apps on mobile either. React Cosmos is desktop dev tool that you run locally as part of your codebase.

Right next to the demo, however, there's a link to a 21-tweet thread with specific functionality, code examples and visuals included: https://twitter.com/ReactCosmos/status/1189127279533793281

Comment · 5 years ago

It _is_ the same project though, hugely improved.

Comment · 5 years ago

> I'm not going to use a project that cares more about "hype" than about delivering value

I can assure you I care a lot more about delivering value than hype. I spent countless hours (from my personal time) over the last 6 years on making React Cosmos easy to use and compatible with as many codebase configurations as possible, and maybe two weeks on the website.

The project README explains what the project does and what it doesn't: https://github.com/react-cosmos/react-cosmos/blob/main/READM...

There is an open thread about website feedback, and I agree I could've done a better job and there is still room for improvement: https://github.com/react-cosmos/react-cosmos/issues/1111

Comment · 5 years ago

It's about React Cosmos specifically.

https://twitter.com/dan_abramov/status/600354123372965888

Comment · 6 years ago

Totally agree, like I said I also avoid defaults exports (for the same reasons). But I'm fine with default exports in fixtures because you never import them by hand, they are picked up automatically by React Cosmos. And you can customize no-default-export rules to ignore fixture files.

Comment · 6 years ago

I generally avoid defaults exports as well but didn't realize some codebases disable them completely. What do you mean by "non-default-exporting" TSX files, can you provide a link?

> Perhaps adding shim files that import the component and re-export as default?

Definitely, you could add a transform to the Cosmos build pipeline that renames some named export to default. If you're willing to write the transform I'll gladly help you integrate it.