babel-plugin-fast-jsx

Inline React jsxProd() calls

Table of contents

• Usage
• Why?
• FAQ

Usage

This is a proof-of-concept. Be sure to read the FAQ before using in production.

Vite

This should run on all files, including node_modules.

import { defineConfig } from 'vite'
import react from '@vitejs/plugin-react'
import babel from 'vite-plugin-babel'

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    react(),
    babel({
      filter: /\.(jsx?|tsx?)/,
      babelConfig: {
        plugins: [
          ['babel-plugin-fast-jsx', {
            useSpread: false,  /* Use `{ ...defaultProps, a: 1, b: 2 }` */
            useBuiltIns: true, /* Use `Object.assign({}, defaultProps, { a: 1, b: 2 })` */
          }],
          // You might want to add this one, if you don't support Object.assign or spread:
          // '@babel/plugin-transform-object-rest-spread',
        ]
      }
    })
  ],
})

Webpack

I haven't tested, but it should be as easy as adding a babel-loader transform with the same config as the vite config above.

Why

JSX in React normally desugars to something like this:

// from this
function Component({ children }) {
  return (
    <div ref={handleRef} key='component'>
      {children}
    </div>
  )
}

// to this
import { jsx as _jsx } from 'react/jsx-runtime';
function Component({ children }) {
  return _jsx('div', {
    ref: handleRef,
    key: 'component',
    children: children,
  })
}

The problem is that jsx() is slow, because it needs to clone the props you pass in to extract the key and ref, and pass them separately to its internal builder function. But is also slow because it needs to handle defaultProps, and because it gets passed objects of all forms and shapes, which makes javascript engines angry. Angry because they never know which object shape to expect, and it's hard to optimize those object accesses:

What this plugin does is to inline all those pesky jsx() calls, so you're left with this beauty:

// To this
import { jsx as _jsx } from 'react/jsx-runtime';
var __react_CurrentOwner = React.__SECRET_INTERNALS_DO_NOT_USE_OR_YOU_WILL_BE_FIRED.ReactCurrentOwner;
var __react_ElementType = Symbol.for("react.element");
function Component({ children }) {
  return {
    $$typeof: __react_ElementType,
    type: 'div',
    ref: handleRef,
    key: 'component',
    props: {
      children: children
    },
    _owner: __react_CurrentOwner.current
  })
}

No more unnecessary copies, no more looping through defaultProps, no more megamorphic object accesses. It's also smart enough to inline defaultProps handling where applicable. That means when the component type is not a string like 'div', but a function component:

// from this
return _jsx(Component, {
  ref: handleRef,
  key: 'component',
  children: ['text'],
});

// to this
return {
  $$typeof: __react_ElementType,
  type: Component,
  ref: handleRef,
  key: 'component',
  props: Component.defaultProps ?
    _extend({}, Component.defaultProps, { children: ['text'] }) :
    { children: ['text'] },
  _owner: __react_CurrentOwner.current
};

Due to limitatations in current JSX conventions, there are however cases that can't be inlined, such as the one below. It uses a destructured otherProps object that might contain another .ref or .key. In those cases, this plugin transforms the call to a slightly more efficient version of jsxProd() that considers it has what Rust calls "mutable ownership" over its props argument: it's free to delete props.ref instead of copying the object over again.

// from this
const component = _jsx(Component, _extends({ ref: handleRef }, otherProps));
// to this (combines _jsx and _extends to avoid copying)
const component = _jsxFromOwnedExtends(Component, null, { ref: handleRef }, otherProps);

// from this
const component = _jsx(Component, { ref: handleRef, ...otherProps });
// to this (mutates its props directly to avoid copying)
const component = _jsxFromOwned(Component, null, { ref: handleRef, ...otherProps });

FAQ

Is this going to make my app fast?

Only if you see jsxProd() (or q as it's called in prod at the moment) appear at the top of your devtools profiling results. It could realistically be making up for as low as 0.1% or as high as 10% of your runtime. It's really use-case dependent. Start with React.memo (or fastMemo) before looking into any of this.

Be aware that all browser devtools are based on sample-based profiling, which takes a sample of your stack at regular intervals. jsxProd is the kind of function that could fall between the cracks of those samples, so you might want to use Firefox devtools with a custom sample interval, or Chrome devtools with CPU throttling, to do your profiling.

Isn't using __SECRET_INTERNALS_DO_NOT_USE_OR_... bad?

It's fine. Imho, React will be hesitant about breaking that API, if they change it they will break some existing alternative renderers such as react-pdf. Proof that giving a stupid name to your internal-only API won't deter devs that need to get stuff done from using it.

Is this usable in production today?

There is one issue remaining, the plugin is injecting _jsxFromOwned(Extends) in every module scope that uses it. With some help from the Babel gods this should be no more than a few hours to fix. Other than that it's pretty much usable. I have tested it with a few major component libraries, it compiles correctly.