What is Fibers?
A Fiber is an instance of a component in React, representing a unit of work in the UI. Fibers restructure the rendering process into a linked list, optimizing resource allocation and rendering performance.
Origin and Purpose
- Background: React's initial rendering process, before Fibers, was based on a recursive call stack, which had limitations in handling intensive UI updates and animations.
- Why Fibers?: Introduced to enhance React's ability to handle complex UIs and improve performance for applications with heavy rendering tasks.
Key Features and Principles
- Incremental Rendering: Fibers allow React to split rendering work into chunks and spread it out over multiple frames.
- Prioritization of Tasks: Enables prioritizing updates based on importance, improving responsiveness.
- Concurrency: Allows pausing, resuming, or aborting rendering tasks, enhancing efficiency.
Impact and Use
Fibers contribute to smoother, more responsive user interfaces and maintain a familiar API for React developers.
Future Directions
Lays the foundation for future improvements in React, like Concurrent Mode, further enhancing rendering and update handling.