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Ask HN: Am I missing something by not learning JavaScript frameworks?

3 points by serveratdenys ↗ HN
I did jQuery, Knockout, and a little Angular. It was shortly after that that there were an explosion of frameworks and at the time I was far more interested in studying math.

I still code entire projects in raw node.js and client-side JavaScript. I have half-way been keeping mostly up to date with a lot of C# stuff and I see some pros and cons in the way that is evolving.

People really love their JavaScript frameworks though. Is learning React really a mind-blowing experience? Does it teach you anything new other than how to use it?

I feel like the number of revolutionary programming concepts that I'm supposed to keep up with is beyond not only my will but also my ability.

3 comments

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wmf
Virtual DOM, one-way data flow, immutable data, and GraphQL are interesting concepts that might justify changing the way you develop. Most of the new frameworks are based on the same concepts and there isn't value to learning multiple of them.
abhisuri97
Really I can say that most frameworks are being misused by people who just learn X because it’s cool/new/trendy and everything else is automatically “bad” relative to that framework they learned. So don’t put much credence in claims of X being the best (chances are people didn’t look at Y and Z).

There are certain things react emphasizes which people think is the best thing since sliced bread, namely component based architecture and automagically updating views when there’s a change to state.

Only use it if you find jquery etc to be too painful. If you are fine as is, it’s a nice learning exercise but probably will cause more headache than anything else.

cimmanom
Frameworks are useful if you’re going to be collaborating with people. They provide common idiom and structure for larger projects. Modern JS frameworks especially solve for the complexities of meeting track of state in an asynchronous application.

Are you missing something? That depends on your plans and goals.