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by huy-nguyen 2945 days ago
I think people got carried away with the JSX side of React (which IMO is really just the icing on the cake) and forgot that React was probably the first view library that introduces the notion of the DOM as a pure function of data. It made functional programming mainstream in front-end development. This purity makes UI extremely easy to reason about and makes all DOM changes tractable. I was in a Backbone shop before using React and I remember Backbone was such a chore to manage in a large application. We switched to React and never looked back.
2 comments
freedomben 2945 days ago
> It made functional programming mainstream in front-end development.

I totally agree, and in fact I would take it a little farther and say it's making functional programming mainstream on the backend as well. Many people I've worked with got their taste via React/Redux and then started adopting things like Elixir/Phoenix for the backend.

Maybe it's an overstatement, but I credit React with driving at least some of that.

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pests 2945 days ago
Its funny because JSX is totally unrelated to React besides just being a heavy convention. You can use a totally different template system if you plumb it up correctly. Plus JSX can be used outside of React.

You hit on the two points that makes React what it is. A pure state -> ui abstraction and the ability for large projects or teams to use it efficiently.

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