Default lifecycle methods on React.Component ?

Just a small API detail: would it make sense to implement default (empty) lifecycle methods in the base React.Component class? It would allow to have homogenous implementations as far as super() calls are concerned.

For example, the following will throw due to the missing componentDidMount implementation in the parent class:

class Foo extends React.Component {
    componentDidMount( ) {
        super.componentDidMount( );
    }
};

However, when overloading the Foo class, a missing super call might introduce some bugs. That’s what got me to think that maybe it was safer to always put the super-call, and then I discovered that it was not possible when heriting from the base class.

[arcanis]

Just wanted to make a little follow-up here : I’ve tried not using inheritance, and using composition instead and … well, I really like it, actually. I’ve been able to achieve the same things than before and even more, but in a much cleaner way. When I need to override a behaviour, I just add a func prop to my “overridable” components and that’s it.

So I guess that as far as I’m concerned, this issue can be closed. I still think it would be nice to still add the default methods for those who prefer inheritance, but it’s not something I would fight for.

Thanks for the lesson!

[dylan-shao]

Hi @gaearon, I saw in the 'SplitPane ’ example of https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/composition-vs-inheritance.html, the stateless component ‘SplitPane’ wraps other component like the ‘Chat’. But usually the ‘Chat’ component is stateful, so it ends with a stateless component wrap a stateful component, is it a good practice?(I mean, I have been told stateless component should not have stateful child ) Thanks!