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One of the ongoing narratives here on HN and elsewhere is that there's ‘a new JavaScript framework every other week’, as if that's a bad thing. A bit further d

One of the ongoing narratives here on HN and elsewhere is that there's ‘a new JavaScript framework every other week’, as if that's a bad thing. A bit further down the thread, Sebastian says: > Revel in fragmentation and duplication because without it there's stagnation and it stifles innovation. And that just resonates with me. We have a large amount of fragmentation in JS-land, but also an incredible amount of innovation. That sparkly new hobby framework written by your random Joe Programmer may contain a brilliant idea or two, and for that it's already a net-positive addition to our world. There's this idea that you'll get hopelessly lost trying to find your way through some sort of framework jungle, but what we really have is options and innovation. If you don't want the hassle, then by all means just go with something obviously solid, stable and here to stay, like Ember or AngularJS.

sotojuan 9y ago
The thing that is unique about JS is that most people see it as unnecessary and detrimental. No one cares about Joe's brilliant idea if it's used to render text (where a server-side template would've done just fine) or serve ads. Still, I'm on Sebastian's side. Being a maintainer of a popular project is tough.
WkndTriathlete 9y ago
Innovation is good. I think the knock against "a new JavaScript framework every other week" stems from seeing JavaScript tools, frameworks, and libraries throwing aside 60-70 years of solid design patterns and architectural principles in favor of "minimum viable product" in order to be "first to market." This has resulted in a plethora of relatively immature tools and frameworks that are just better enough than the previous generation of tools to warrant using, but use of the new tools and frameworks to engineer quality software also results in a lot of frustration. For an exercise in what I describe above, try taking an existing AngularJS (v1.x) application, add some non-AngularJS components using ES6, then attempt to generate a comprehensive test coverage report over all of the components in a single testing pass using Gulp, Webpack 2, and Karma. Bonus points if you figure out where to add Istanbul correctly on the first pass through it.

sotojuan 9y ago

The thing that is unique about JS is that most people see it as unnecessary and detrimental. No one cares about Joe's brilliant idea if it's used to render text (where a server-side template would've done just fine) or serve ads. Still, I'm on Sebastian's side. Being a maintainer of a popular project is tough.

WkndTriathlete 9y ago

Innovation is good. I think the knock against "a new JavaScript framework every other week" stems from seeing JavaScript tools, frameworks, and libraries throwing aside 60-70 years of solid design patterns and architectural principles in favor of "minimum viable product" in order to be "first to market." This has resulted in a plethora of relatively immature tools and frameworks that are just better enough than the previous generation of tools to warrant using, but use of the new tools and frameworks to engineer quality software also results in a lot of frustration. For an exercise in what I describe above, try taking an existing AngularJS (v1.x) application, add some non-AngularJS components using ES6, then attempt to generate a comprehensive test coverage report over all of the components in a single testing pass using Gulp, Webpack 2, and Karma. Bonus points if you figure out where to add Istanbul correctly on the first pass through it.