React components should be pure, not "idempotent"

Summary

A blogpost in the React docs confuses idempotence with purity. Even though this might seem a small typo, it is one of essential importance in that blogpost.

Page

https://react.dev/blog/2024/02/15/react-labs-what-we-have-been-working-on-february-2024

Details

Idempotence is a property of a function that it returns the same result if you apply the function twice to itself, for example, the absolute value function abs is idempotent, since, abs(abs(x)) = x. In general terms f : X --> X is idempotent iff f ∘ f = f.

This is confused with a pure function. This is a function that, given the same input, returns the same output. It is side-effect free or written in a "functional" style.

Even if this might seem like a minor mistake; it is one of the essential properties that the compiler should check for and to that extent, especially newer developers should not be confused.

Abre la publicación del blog de React Labs de febrero de 2024 enlazada en el issue y localiza la frase que describe los componentes de React como idempotent. Revisa la explicación sobre la pureza que la rodea, actualiza la terminología para que la página describa con precisión la propiedad prevista y verifica la documentación renderizada.