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Ask HN: When will the React trend fade away?

4 pointsby damaruabout 8 years ago
I'm surely not an expert coder, but I've work with the web since setting up BBS in the 90s. I've dabbled in react a few time only to find myself annoyed by it's complexity. I have a deep feeling that this type of framework is only a trend. It is changing the way we think about the web, and will surely inspire better way to code the web, but I feel the fad greatly surpass the usefulness of this new paradigm. I wonder how HN feels about it?

1 comment

acemarkeabout 8 years ago
I think you&#x27;re very wrong on a couple levels.<p>First, React has spread the concept of composable component-based UI development. Angular has adopted many of the ideas, Ember has adopted many of the ideas, and there&#x27;s a whole bunch of other libraries that have been inspired by ideas that React has helped popularize.<p>Second, React&#x27;s popularity is continuing to grow. I&#x27;m pretty biased, but I don&#x27;t see React as a &quot;fad&quot;, and I definitely don&#x27;t see it going away any time soon.<p>Third, the point of React itself is to _reduce_ complexity so that you can look at components in isolation and understand how they behave. Yes, yes, &quot;Javascript Fatigue&quot;, tooling, libraries, etc, etc. Most of that is not React-specific, but rather a factor of trying to build complex web applications that live in a browser.<p>If you have any specific concerns or complaints about learning or using React, I&#x27;d be happy to answer questions. Just for kicks, I&#x27;ll toss out my standard advice for learning React:<p>The article &quot;A Study Plan to Cure Javascript Fatigue&quot; ( <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.freecodecamp.com&#x2F;a-study-plan-to-cure-javascript-fatigue-8ad3a54f2eb1" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.freecodecamp.com&#x2F;a-study-plan-to-cure-javascr...</a> ) is a great place to start. It gives an excellent series of steps for tackling modern Javascript concepts one piece at a time: Javascript, React, ES6, and state management.<p>On that note, definitely don&#x27;t over-complicate the learning process by trying to learn many different things at once. Some people will say you should use a &quot;boilerplate&quot; to learn React, and they&#x27;re wrong - boilerplate projects almost always come with too many pieces configured, and are confusing for beginners.<p>Instead, the best advice is to focus on learning React itself first. Once you have a good understanding of how React works, you will better appreciate why a state management library like Redux can be useful, and you can learn about other tools later.<p>You should start out by reading through the official React docs and tutorial at <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;facebook.github.io&#x2F;react&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;facebook.github.io&#x2F;react&#x2F;</a>, and I&#x27;d encourage you to use the official Create-React-App tool ( <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;facebookincubator&#x2F;create-react-app" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;facebookincubator&#x2F;create-react-app</a> ) for setting up projects. It creates a project with a solid build setup, with no configuration needed on your part. There&#x27;s an excellent post called &quot;Simple React Development in 2017&quot; ( <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;hackernoon.com&#x2F;simple-react-development-in-2017-113bd563691f" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;hackernoon.com&#x2F;simple-react-development-in-2017-113b...</a> ) that gives some more specific instructions on the actual steps to follow.<p>Past that, I keep a big list of links to high-quality tutorials and articles on React, Redux, and related topics, at <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;markerikson&#x2F;react-redux-links" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;markerikson&#x2F;react-redux-links</a> . Specifically intended to be a great starting point for anyone trying to learn the ecosystem, as well as a solid source of good info on more advanced topics. It includes links for learning core Javascript (ES5), modern Javascript (ES6+), React, and much more. I also published an &quot;Intro to React (and Redux)&quot; presentation at <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.isquaredsoftware.com&#x2F;2017&#x2F;02&#x2F;presentation-react-redux-intro&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.isquaredsoftware.com&#x2F;2017&#x2F;02&#x2F;presentation-react-...</a> , which is a good overview of the basic concepts for both React and Redux.<p>Finally, the Reactiflux chat channels on Discord are a great place to hang out, ask questions, and learn. The invite link is at <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reactiflux.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reactiflux.com</a> .