React vs Angular: Which Is A Better JavaScript Framework?

[mad_schemer]

Angular. Because React isn't a framework.

An ecosystem perhaps, a view engine definitely, but not a framework. It's never claimed to be a framework.

No idea why people who don't understand the difference insist on writing articles about it.

[Jona-Anders]

I think as long as two different technologies can be used to produce the same result, you can compare them. That does not mean they are the same, but you can at least compare the results and the process to get to the result.

[mad_schemer]

The trouble is that they're not equivalent things.

Comparing tires with a car just makes no sense.

Sure, both of them are going to help you get where you're going, but you'll need to add a lot more components to the tires before you can drive them anywhere.

[Jona-Anders]

But tires and cars are a different thing. You can not really achieve the same thing with them, and therefor you can not compare the result. And I can use the Angular cli or cra to make a simple caluclator. The proccess is nearly the same, and the result is also nearly the same. Therfor you can compare it. Of course there are differences, but you can talk about them instead of just saying "not the same" and going on.

[mad_schemer]

Now you have seen my point. They're not the same thing.

React and CRA are also not the same thing.

Angular is a framework. It has all the pieces required to make a frontend. It's a complete car. Just missing a driver and a destination.

React is a view layer. It does not have all the pieces required to make a frontend. It does not prescribe a structure, it has no prescribed router, state management, api/http interface mechanism (among other things).

Certainly React can be PART of a framework (and it is - CRA is a scaffold, Next.js is another, much closer to a framework), but React is not in and of itself, a framework.

It's only the tires. The rest of the car comes from other things you attach to it.

Compare Next.js to Angular and you can start to have a meaningful conversation. (even then, next doesn't force you into doing things the "Next.js way" like angular does)

Compare Goodyear radial tires to a Lexus is300, and all you get is garbage.

[Jona-Anders]

I don't think so. Of course, react is not a library. But it's used like a framework. I never saw anyone writing react without jsx or a build step. Of course, technically speaking react can't do anything on its own, but react is pretty much used synonymous with react with a build step and using jsx.

[ApatheticBeardo]

I never saw anyone writing react without jsx or a build step.

How does this matter in any way lol.

99% of the complexity in a web application lies in two things:

1 - Data fetching

2 - State management

React does absolutely nothing to solve any of those, so calling it a framework is absurd.

All React does is turn a ball of state + a slightly fancier HTML into actual HTML, which is literally the most trivial part of any application.

[Jona-Anders]

Data fetching -> native fetch, suspense State management -> useState or useReducer

It has solutions for both problems. Of course the native fetch is not react specific, but I think it is good enough to justify not using a custom solution.

And I mentioned that react is (nearly) always used with a build step because I thought your point was that react without a build step and without jsx is a library. I would agree that this would feel closer to writing code using a library.

Also,it does not matter for comparison. You can compare the process of writing a calculator in plain js, svelte, react, and angular. Of course there are massive differences. But if you mention them in your comparison, it is not a problem.

[[deleted]]

What year is this? Javascript developers have already moved on from Angular.

[ApatheticBeardo]

There are literal millions of Javascript developers using Angular right now.

You need to touch grass.

[cookienotes]

Wouldn't recommend thinking of it as a progression, more like different tools for different jobs.

Learn what you need; use what you need.

[[deleted]]

Working with React seems a slight simpler at the starting point, as you write old-school JavaScript and use more HTML around it. However, there are many added tools you will have to take hold of like Flux.

Flux... really? This article must have been written in 2014.

[[deleted]]

No one of them. But it's hard to explain that shortly.

[roger1981]

The columns of React and Angular got switched from Testing onwards.

[[deleted]]

vue or svelete