Popper vs. Floating UI

The text explores the evolution and comparison of CSS positioning tools, focusing specifically on the libraries Popper and Floating UI. Popper, a lightweight library for positioning elements such as tooltips and dropdowns, has been a popular choice due to its reliable engine and modern API, but it is mainly web-focused. Floating UI, developed as an upgrade to Popper by Federico Zivolo, supports multiple platforms including React Native and Canvas, offering more versatility and modern features. It introduces improvements like the ability to avoid element overflow and dynamic positioning with middleware such as Flip() and Shift(), which are not feasible with pure CSS. The article highlights the advantages of Floating UI over Popper, including smaller library size, tree-shakability, and stronger typing with TypeScript, making it more predictable and extensible for developers. Despite Popper's established presence and community support, Floating UI is recommended for its cross-platform capabilities and ease of use, although it currently lacks extensive learning resources beyond its documentation.