What is the difference between hot reloading and live reloading?
Live Reloading, Hot Reloading, and Hot Module Replacement (HMR) are all techniques used in web development to improve our experience by providing quick feedback on code changes.
Here are the conceptual differences:
Live Reloading:
Concept: Live reloading involves refreshing the entire web page every time a file is saved, resulting in a full reload of the application.
- Process: When a file is modified and saved, the development server detects the change and triggers a full page refresh in the browser.
- Effect: This causes the entire application to reload from scratch, losing any current state or context.
- Use Case: It’s suitable for simpler projects or cases where preserving application state across reloads is not a concern.
Hot Reloading:
Concept: Hot reloading updates the application in real-time without a full page refresh, preserving the application state.
- Process: When a file is modified and saved, only the changed modules or components are injected or replaced in the running application, without affecting the rest of the application.
- Effect: It provides a faster feedback loop compared to live reloading since it updates only the parts of the application that have changed, maintaining the current application state.
- Use Case: Hot reloading is particularly useful for preserving stateful components or complex application states during development.
Hot Module Replacement (HMR):
Concept: HMR is an advanced version of hot reloading that updates individual modules or code snippets in real-time, without disrupting the application’s overall state.
- Process: Similar to hot reloading, but it’s more granular. When a file is saved, only the specific modules affected by the change are updated, preserving the state of the rest of the application.
- Effect: It provides the fastest feedback loop by updating only the changed modules, making it extremely efficient for large and complex applications.
- Use Case: HMR is ideal for large-scale projects with intricate dependency trees and complex application states where fine-grained updates are crucial for development productivity.
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