A truly awful name for a function

I still haven’t managed to get over my astonishment that this planned new React hook is called use(). Did anyone really think this was a good idea?

This name manages to be bad on so many levels:

1. Descriptiveness. “Use” is about as specific as “data”.
2. Lookup. How are you ever supposed to find docs/articles for something whose name is both a very short and basic English verb and also the prefix of literally every other (built-in and custom) React hook?
3. It’s even a circular reference. According to the RFC, the name cannot be more specific because Promises are not the only “usable” type (sic): in the future, you will (should (might)) be able to use context, or maybe even some store or observable objects. So what can be used with use? Well, the “usable” types. What are those “usable” types? Well… you know… all the things you can use with use.

OK, I think I’m done venting now. Time to look into the actual usage.