React 19, and reading the release notes as an outsider

A major release in December for a library this codebase has been reducing its use of for three years.

what is in it, and what it means here:

  the compiler          removes most memoisation. would
                        have mattered in 2020.
  actions and useActionState
                        form handling, aimed at the
                        framework we do not use.
  ref as a prop         a genuine simplification.
  document metadata     handled server-side here.

react in this codebase, 2024: two components, both in
the block editor, both WordPress's version.

so: read, noted, and nothing to do.

Writing down that a release does not apply is worth as much as writing down that it does, and the reason it does not is the interesting part — the surface we have left is the editor, and that version is chosen by WordPress rather than by us. The last five years of this codebase have been a steady move away from client-side rendering, and the release notes read as a description of a road not taken.