In this article by Jonathan Hayward author of the book Reactive Programming with JavaScript he explains that Google Maps were a big hit when it came out, and it remains quite important, but the new functionality it introduced was pretty much nothing. The contribution Google made with its maps site was taking things previously only available with a steep learning cliff and giving them its easy trademark simplicity. And that was quite a lot.
(For more resources related to this topic, see here.)
Similar things might be said about ReactJS. No one at Facebook invented functional reactive programming. No one at Facebook appears to have significantly expanded functional reactive programming. But ReactJS markedly lowered the bar to entry. Previously, with respect to functional reactive programming, there were repeated remarks among seasoned C++ programmers; they said, “I guess I’m just stupid, or at least, I don’t have a PhD in computational mathematics.” And it might be suggested that proficiency in C++ is no mean feat; getting something to work in Python is less of a feat than getting the same thing to work in C++, just as scaling the local park’s winter sledding hill is less of an achievement than scaling Mount Everest. Also, ReactJS introduces enough of changes so that competent C++ programmers who do not have any kind of degree in math, computational or otherwise, stand a fair chance of using ReactJS and being productive in it. Perhaps they may be less effective than pure JavaScript programmers who are particularly interested in functional programming. But learning to effectively program C++ is a real achievement, and most good C++ programmers have a fair chance of usefully implementing functional reactive programming with ReactJS. However, the same cannot be said for following the computer math papers on Wikipedia and implementing something in the academic authors’ generally preferred language of Haskell. Here we’ll explore a very important topic that is ReactJS as just a view—but what a view!
ReactJS is just a view, but what a view!
Charles Cézanne famously said, “Monet is just an eye, but what an eye!” Monet didn’t try to show off his knowledge of structure and anatomy, but just copy what his eye saw. The consensus judgment of his work holds on to both “just an eye,” and “what an eye!” And indeed, the details may be indistinct in Monet, who rebelled against artistry that tried to impress with deep knowledge of anatomy and knowledge of structure that is far beyond what jumps out to the eye.
ReactJS is a framework rather than a library, which means that you are supposed to build a solution within the structure provided by ReactJS instead of plugging ReactJS into a solution that you structure yourself. The canonical example of a library is jQuery, where you build a solution your way, and call on jQuery as it fits into a structure that you design.
However, ReactJS is specialized as a view. It’s not that this is necessarily good or bad, but ReactJS is not a complete web development framework, and does not have even the intension of being the only tool you will ever need. It focuses on being a view, and in Facebook’s offering, this does not include any form of AJAX call. This is not a monumental oversight in developing ReactJS; the expectation is that you use ReactJS as a View to provide the user interface functionality, and other tools to meet other needs as appropriate. This text hasn’t covered using ReactJS together with your favorite tools, but do combine your favorite tools with ReactJS if they are not going to step on each other’s feet. ReactJS may or may not collide with other Views, but it is meant to work with non-View technologies.
Summary
In this article, we looked at ReactJS as a view and also learned that ReactJS is not a complete web development framework.
Resources for Article:
Further resources on this subject:
- An Introduction to Reactive Programming[article]
- Kivy – An Introduction to Mastering JavaScript Promises and Its Implementation in Angular.js[article]
- Object-Oriented JavaScript with Backbone Classes [article]
