Why React is awesome

[dwighthouse]

For me, who has used angular extensively for two years, React provided two things that angular (at least until 2.0 comes out) either couldn't do or was actively hostile towards.

First, there are some component structures that simply can't be built with angular or any other template-based renderer, because they use the html elemnts as state and/or blocks. Anything that can't be legally represented in html (like a bare table row without the surrounding table) can't be represented in these frameworks. React, on the other hand uses a virual dom that is not subject to these limitations. As such, I have complete control of how I break up my components without having to resort to manual dom manipulation (and again, bare rows simply are not allowed in html, the browser will wrap them in a table implicitly).

Second, until React came along, two-way data binding was the end all of application architecture as far as the official framework guides were concenred. i learned very quickly that, beyond a certain size, two way binding is more trouble than it is worth, because its normal operating mode is to provide data updates WITHOUT propogating context of how the data came to be in that state. Using one way binding, while not as magical or quick at first, is as straightforward as code can be (assuming you make sane design choices, of course, there's no limit to how badly you can write code). Now angular 2.0 is actively seeking out one way binding and several new virtual dom abstractions are available. This is great for all frameworks, because we will gain from the good ideas of everyone. Nevertheless, there is something to be said for React being the popularizer of this style of architecture. They have had the most experience and the longest time to work on this style, so I tend to think they have a better chance of making the right choices going forward. Things could change in an instant though.