Despite all its warts, MDX is a gamechanger for writing documentation and technical content. It removes the friction between the desire to add a bit of interactivity, and actually doing it in a way that surpasses your original intent. I can’t imagine going back to plain Markdown.
When writing, I used to “think in” Headings, Images, and Text. But now I can also “think in” in <FunFact>s, <Gotcha>s, <CodeSandbox>es, <Quiz>es and whatever domain-specific thing makes sense for this piece of content. Removing friction frees the imagination.
Unlike with a traditional CMS-backed writing, I don’t need a vendor to tell me what kind of blocks I’m allowed to use. I want to make my own in a few minutes.
My biggest problem with MDX is complexity of the stack. Hoping Server Components can simplify it in the long term.
My biggest problem with MDX is complexity of the stack. Hoping Server Components can simplify it in the long term.
The technical constraints are secondary. The real point is that it’s a different authoring medium, and it will take a while before people catch up with its capabilities. A medium is much more than the technology: it shapes and reshapes the content. We’ll notice when this happens.
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