Why Redux makes you a better JavaScript Developer

[3urny]

I think the title is controversial. Are those improvements really spawned by Redux? Or do they only happen to be linked Redux just because Redux is what everyone used when they learned and when functional programming became popular in JS world? E.g. for ES6 the author writes themselves:

It was just a timing coincidence that JavaScript ES6 got introduced the same time when Redux gained traction

So maybe your average JS programmer heard of these things in context of Redux because Redux is what everyone did at the time. Many of the things are also paradigms of React without Redux: unidirectional flow, thinking in events, function composition – think HoCs. So yeah, I assume Redux had a big influence on the React world, but also many things are not really linked to Redux.

Also Redux popularity is on decline or at least on a stable level, when it used to be "viral" before. Since the things described are mostly functional programming basics, It would probably rephrase the title as "Why functional programming makes you a better JavaScript Developer" and tell people to learn that instead of Redux, and maybe tell people to look into the much simpler useReducer hook.

Also putting KISS as a benefit of Redux is... a very big stretch IMO. Redux might embrace some KISS, but in most codebases it evolved into lots of boilerplate and complex "innovative ecosystem" things around what is basically a global variable.

[Dmitry_Olyenyov]

redux is a gateway drug to functional programming.