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I didn't downvote, but I'll speak to my experience. First off, you don't have to go learning every framework out there. Pick one and stick with it, or just go

I didn't downvote, but I'll speak to my experience. First off, you don't have to go learning every framework out there. Pick one and stick with it, or just go vanilla. That said, The features these frameworks provide gives a boost in productivity that far outweighs the low learning curve. My pick was VueJS and I'm very happy with it. Using Single File Components is pretty similar to vanilla HTML/JS/CSS. Beginners that were under my guidance (with only HTML/CSS/JS experience) usually pick it up and were productive in the same day. I disagree that React (JSX) is most similar to vanilla JS/HTML at all (I don't prefer it, but to each their own). Vue and Svelte are much further on the side of a vanilla-ish approach.

spoils19 5y ago
Frontend developers like to change frameworks every week it seems like, so it's in my best interest to learn every framework (or at least some abstracted part of it) in order to stay employable and up-to-date. The problem is that each framework has their own abstraction and language that you have to learn. Compare it to "old-school" Java frameworks, where things were much simpler and you didn't have to worry about egregious layers of complexity to just render a DOM. Grumble grumble
- l30n4da5 5y ago
  > Frontend developers like to change frameworks every week it seems like Most of the popular frontend frameworks (Vue, React, Angular, Svelte) have been around for years at this point. It is like arguing Ruby on Rails vs Spring Boot.
- mikewhy 5y ago
  > Frontend developers like to change frameworks every week it seems like This sentiment is so old and played out.
  - 2muchcoffeeman 5y ago
    Is it false though? If it’s true, then maybe we need to look at why it’s true. It’s not just front end developers though. I think other domains and their frameworks went through the same thing. This is just the time for front end.
    - vosper 5y ago
      Yes, it is false. Anyone in the space can tell you how stable things have been for years now. Plus, there are a lot of people writing JS. It’s not a tiny community fracturing itself over different ways of doing things, and becoming destined for obscurity. It’s tens or hundreds of thousands of developers. In a community this big I’d say having a few choices is a sign of health.
    - tshaddox 5y ago
      Indeed, it’s false. React is 8 years old, and when React was first released jQuery was only 7 years old. I follow this stuff pretty closely and I can only think of maybe 10 JS UI frameworks that have attracted remotely significant use and active development at any point in the past 15 years.
      - 2muchcoffeeman 5y ago
        Java is 26. Spring is 19. Struts 2 is 15. Python is 30. Django is 16. I’m just picking a few frameworks and languages I’ve used in the past and are still used. Obviously there are still new frameworks and libraries that come out for these languages. But sometimes the big projects fold those in. Or they write their own or whatever. I can pick the popular names and do pretty much what I need. JavaScript is 25. But most of that time we weren’t doing what we can now. And most frameworks are fairly young. Angular is 11. But most people (and jobs) have jumped ship to React(8) and now there is Svelte(4) which also looks good. And I think there will be more changes to come. These JS frameworks aren’t exactly veterans that are impossible to supplant. Not yet anyway.
    - winphone1974 5y ago
      Why is no complaining that there more than one way to build a php app? Perhaps because like JS it's a huge ecosystem with a giant user base and millions of use cases. Front end dev has lots of room to support the dozen or so mainstream frameworks we've used over the past decade-plus
  - vosper 5y ago
    Agree, and it’s nice to see this worn-out trope getting downvoted for once. Sneering at JS / Frontend developers is one of the more distasteful tendencies of HN.
    - spoils19 5y ago
      Probably because it's an entire industry that is self-sustaining, without really a reason for it to exist. Most software can be built with regular HTML / JS / CSS without some convoluted framework. Even better, let's make a desktop application (when was the last time we had those?!), and we can get all kinds of performance and security gains without having to tack everything on to the web as a platform.
      - winphone1974 5y ago
        The "just build a desktop app" trope is even more played out. Plus you know all these front end frameworks are "just HTML/ JS/CSS" right?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- dmitriid 5y ago
  > Frontend developers like to change frameworks every week React is 8 years old Vue is 8 years old Svelte is the relative newcomer, at 4 years (and the major third version at ~2 years). The idea of "frameworks are changing every week" hasn't been true in a very long time
- jayflux 5y ago
  > Frontend developers like to change frameworks every week it seems like React is now 8 years old… so is Vue. What are these new frontend frameworks you keep seeing?
- breakfastduck 5y ago
  'Frontend developers' like who exactly? Anyone that's worked in a reasonably sized FE codebase can very clearly understand that changing your framework is essentially migrating a huge production DB but on steroids. Where exactly have you seen a team of developers change their front end framework every week?

spoils19 5y ago

Frontend developers like to change frameworks every week it seems like, so it's in my best interest to learn every framework (or at least some abstracted part of it) in order to stay employable and up-to-date. The problem is that each framework has their own abstraction and language that you have to learn. Compare it to "old-school" Java frameworks, where things were much simpler and you didn't have to worry about egregious layers of complexity to just render a DOM. Grumble grumble

l30n4da5 5y ago
> Frontend developers like to change frameworks every week it seems like Most of the popular frontend frameworks (Vue, React, Angular, Svelte) have been around for years at this point. It is like arguing Ruby on Rails vs Spring Boot.
mikewhy 5y ago
> Frontend developers like to change frameworks every week it seems like This sentiment is so old and played out.
- 2muchcoffeeman 5y ago
  Is it false though? If it’s true, then maybe we need to look at why it’s true. It’s not just front end developers though. I think other domains and their frameworks went through the same thing. This is just the time for front end.
  - vosper 5y ago
    Yes, it is false. Anyone in the space can tell you how stable things have been for years now. Plus, there are a lot of people writing JS. It’s not a tiny community fracturing itself over different ways of doing things, and becoming destined for obscurity. It’s tens or hundreds of thousands of developers. In a community this big I’d say having a few choices is a sign of health.
  - tshaddox 5y ago
    Indeed, it’s false. React is 8 years old, and when React was first released jQuery was only 7 years old. I follow this stuff pretty closely and I can only think of maybe 10 JS UI frameworks that have attracted remotely significant use and active development at any point in the past 15 years.
    - 2muchcoffeeman 5y ago
      Java is 26. Spring is 19. Struts 2 is 15. Python is 30. Django is 16. I’m just picking a few frameworks and languages I’ve used in the past and are still used. Obviously there are still new frameworks and libraries that come out for these languages. But sometimes the big projects fold those in. Or they write their own or whatever. I can pick the popular names and do pretty much what I need. JavaScript is 25. But most of that time we weren’t doing what we can now. And most frameworks are fairly young. Angular is 11. But most people (and jobs) have jumped ship to React(8) and now there is Svelte(4) which also looks good. And I think there will be more changes to come. These JS frameworks aren’t exactly veterans that are impossible to supplant. Not yet anyway.
  - winphone1974 5y ago
    Why is no complaining that there more than one way to build a php app? Perhaps because like JS it's a huge ecosystem with a giant user base and millions of use cases. Front end dev has lots of room to support the dozen or so mainstream frameworks we've used over the past decade-plus
- vosper 5y ago
  Agree, and it’s nice to see this worn-out trope getting downvoted for once. Sneering at JS / Frontend developers is one of the more distasteful tendencies of HN.
  - spoils19 5y ago
    Probably because it's an entire industry that is self-sustaining, without really a reason for it to exist. Most software can be built with regular HTML / JS / CSS without some convoluted framework. Even better, let's make a desktop application (when was the last time we had those?!), and we can get all kinds of performance and security gains without having to tack everything on to the web as a platform.
    - winphone1974 5y ago
      The "just build a desktop app" trope is even more played out. Plus you know all these front end frameworks are "just HTML/ JS/CSS" right?
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
dmitriid 5y ago
> Frontend developers like to change frameworks every week React is 8 years old Vue is 8 years old Svelte is the relative newcomer, at 4 years (and the major third version at ~2 years). The idea of "frameworks are changing every week" hasn't been true in a very long time
jayflux 5y ago
> Frontend developers like to change frameworks every week it seems like React is now 8 years old… so is Vue. What are these new frontend frameworks you keep seeing?
breakfastduck 5y ago
'Frontend developers' like who exactly? Anyone that's worked in a reasonably sized FE codebase can very clearly understand that changing your framework is essentially migrating a huge production DB but on steroids. Where exactly have you seen a team of developers change their front end framework every week?