On December 12, 2023, JavaScript and TypeScript developers welcomed the birth of a new tool-Oxlint. This JavaScript linter, designed to quickly catch errors or useless code, has announced its entry into the market with its significant performance advantages and ease of use. According to reports, Oxlint can complete tasks that originally took ESLint 75 minutes in just a few seconds, which is undoubtedly a very attractive solution for large projects that pursue efficiency in a continuous integration environment. Change.
However, the discussion about Oxlint in the technology community, especially on HackerNews, is not entirely positive. Some people worry that although Oxlint has a significant improvement in speed, this advantage may not be so important for daily development work. After all, the execution speed problem of ESLint is not obvious in most cases. It may become a bottleneck only when running lint tasks on a large scale. In addition, the emergence of Oxlint means that many ESLint rules may need to be re-implemented, which not only reduces compatibility with the existing ecosystem, but also puts pressure on simultaneous maintenance for future rules and syntax updates.
On the other hand, for large projects, optimizing ESLint's configuration, such as scanning only modified files, may be enough to solve the speed problem without having to turn to an entirely new tool. This raises a deeper question: is it really worthwhile to develop and maintain a completely new tool, especially for commercial projects, where this cost-benefit trade-off needs to be more careful.
Moreover, it cannot be ignored that Oxlint may not be fully compatible with ESLint's rule set in the early stage, and may not be as rich in functionality as ESLint. This may be a big challenge for projects that rely on ESLint's deep ecology. In addition, regarding the performance improvement of Oxlint, some people believe that the performance bottlenecks of ESLint should be deeply analyzed and targeted optimization should be carried out, rather than simply changing tools to solve the problem.
In this context, the emergence of Oxlint undoubtedly provides a new choice for JavaScript and TypeScript developers. Its efficiency and ease of use may be a good solution for the needs of some specific scenarios. But at the same time, it also brings a series of considerations, including compatibility with the existing ecology, functional completeness, and long-term maintenance sustainability.
So, faced with such an emerging tool, how should developers choose? Should we pursue speed and efficiency, or should we pay more attention to ecological integrity and maturity? Can Oxlint find its place in future technological evolution, or can it lead a new development tool trend? These questions may take time and more practice to answer.