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The thing is that most React developers don't actually think React is that complex at all.

kyriakos 10y ago
I think react has a steep initial learning curve but once you grasp the concepts it's not complicated. It is more verbose than vue though and requires more setup and boilerplate to get started.
- hesarenu 10y ago
  React is very simple. You need to understand only its basic life cycle. Rest is just JavaScript.
  - askmike 10y ago
    I disagree as soon as you write more than a single nested child/parent component, that requires a different way of thinking (should I use state or props?). And that you can't "just uses react". You kind of have to use redux (or similar) as well as a bunch of other stuff.
    - mambodog 10y ago
      People keep saying you 'have to use redux' but I think that's hugely misleading to a large section of potential React users who don't need the highly complex state management that redux facilitates, and could get by just fine with setState+props. I'd hope that people who are being exposed to this idea at least also get the chance to read 'You Might Not Need Redux': https://medium.com/@dan_abramov/you-might-not-need-redux-be46360cf367 https://medium.com/@dan_abramov/you-might-not-need-redux-be4...
      - cageface 10y ago
        Amen to that. Seems like everybody is cargo culting Redux but really you can get pretty far with just React plus some wrapper components to hold state.
    - hesarenu 10y ago
      You don't need to use redux. But it's very useful to manage state. I went from using simple components to flux to redux all in same project. For me State management is a very part of client ui.
- tracker1 10y ago
  I don't think it's more complicated so much as different from what people are used to. Once you think of JSX as functional expressions, it becomes easier... and there are far fewer gotchas at play, imho. I think react combined with a unidirectional state management has a relatively difficult initial learning curve, but overall, I find it's not as steep as say Angular is.
shriek 10y ago
React alone in itself is pretty small library but the pieces that you put together to it (redux, react-router, react-redux, webpack/browserify) might be a big hurdle for beginners.
hajile 10y ago
I spent weeks learning Angular, Ember, and other last-gen frameworks. The todo equivalent was simple, but once you got into their render cycles on a moderately complex project, the wall was very steep. I started off with simple React apps and it was easy, but I expected to hit a wall. That wall simply never comes like it did last generation. I find it interesting that someone would consider it too complex only a couple years later.

I think react has a steep initial learning curve but once you grasp the concepts it's not complicated. It is more verbose than vue though and requires more setup and boilerplate to get started.

hesarenu 10y ago
React is very simple. You need to understand only its basic life cycle. Rest is just JavaScript.
- askmike 10y ago
  I disagree as soon as you write more than a single nested child/parent component, that requires a different way of thinking (should I use state or props?). And that you can't "just uses react". You kind of have to use redux (or similar) as well as a bunch of other stuff.
  - mambodog 10y ago
    People keep saying you 'have to use redux' but I think that's hugely misleading to a large section of potential React users who don't need the highly complex state management that redux facilitates, and could get by just fine with setState+props. I'd hope that people who are being exposed to this idea at least also get the chance to read 'You Might Not Need Redux': https://medium.com/@dan_abramov/you-might-not-need-redux-be46360cf367 https://medium.com/@dan_abramov/you-might-not-need-redux-be4...
    - cageface 10y ago
      Amen to that. Seems like everybody is cargo culting Redux but really you can get pretty far with just React plus some wrapper components to hold state.
  - hesarenu 10y ago
    You don't need to use redux. But it's very useful to manage state. I went from using simple components to flux to redux all in same project. For me State management is a very part of client ui.
tracker1 10y ago
I don't think it's more complicated so much as different from what people are used to. Once you think of JSX as functional expressions, it becomes easier... and there are far fewer gotchas at play, imho. I think react combined with a unidirectional state management has a relatively difficult initial learning curve, but overall, I find it's not as steep as say Angular is.

shriek 10y ago

React alone in itself is pretty small library but the pieces that you put together to it (redux, react-router, react-redux, webpack/browserify) might be a big hurdle for beginners.

hajile 10y ago

I spent weeks learning Angular, Ember, and other last-gen frameworks. The todo equivalent was simple, but once you got into their render cycles on a moderately complex project, the wall was very steep. I started off with simple React apps and it was easy, but I expected to hit a wall. That wall simply never comes like it did last generation. I find it interesting that someone would consider it too complex only a couple years later.