In this detailed technical meeting, the State Changers discussed problems with variable scoping (global versus local) in JavaScript functions and how it's leading to unanticipated side effects. The transcript shows an exploration of a bug impacting an app's functionality where user selections were improperly tracked and displayed due to issues with local storage and variable scope.
The discussion evolved towards broader concepts like maintaining the state of a webpage, the relationship between data and representation on the DOM (Document Object Model), and more efficient ways to manage state synchronization. It hinted at a central issue the teams face: how the functions updating the data and those updating the screen are distributed, presenting a problem of state synchronization. In exploring solutions, there was a deep dive into the working of modern libraries and frameworks such as React. The State Changers suggested creating a single function that updates all wrappers based on the variable state rather than having multiple functions each handling a different aspect of the state update. They also discussed a pattern where each of the functions first updates the local storage (the store of truth) and then calls another function responsible for updating all selections. The discussion also emphasized the changing tools environment and how tools like WeWeb have evolved. Resources like WeWeb are designed specifically for state synchronization, which would simplify the issues they are encountering. Ultimately, this meeting provides a rich source of information for tackling challenges with state synchronization and variable scoping in JavaScript, object model creation, and the potential use of tools like React and WeWeb for managing these problems.
(Source: Office Hours 5/24 )
