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A question: how influential has Swanodette's work with ClojureScript/Om in relation to React been to the direction that you (yourself and Facebook) are taking t

A question: how influential has Swanodette's work with ClojureScript/Om in relation to React been to the direction that you (yourself and Facebook) are taking the evolution of React and its supporting libraries in? From what I've seen, I'm guessing: quite a bit, but I'm not sure that I've noticed it being mentioned. In particular, I'm guessing that the performance characteristics of Om might be especially inspiring. Edit: Oh, and good work on the library! It's great to see efforts to make the case of immutability within the world of JS.

leebyron 12y ago
Personally, a good amount! I know a lot of the React team are also big fans of Om. React has always been inspired by functional programming and I think in another universe we would have preferred to write it in Scala or Haskell or Clojure. With React (and this Immutable lib) we've been trying to incorporate ideas of functional programming into JavaScript product while still feeling familiar and "native to JS".
chenglou 12y ago
I contribute to React. I'm definitely a big fan of ClojureScript and I borrow ideas from it when I can. I currently have a few crazy ideas that are direct results of looking into the Clojure (or Haskell) ecosystem and finding that they've solved my problems, but better. In general, some of the problems we face, at language/library/ecosystem level, might simply not exist in these languages. It's a shame they're not more popular. Regarding popularity, I feel that sometimes the web development community can be ironically dogmatic, considering that it's a free and open platform (see: HN/Reddit's initial reaction to React). Looking back, I still find it incredible that React actually gained so much traction when it defies so many of the pre-established "best practices". I think lots of people, including me, are learning more and more to take a step back before dismissing an idea. So if you were one of those that dismissed Clojure/ClojureScript because "parentheses in front of my function call?", "snake case isn't for me", or "it's too different from idiomatic js" (I hope this one isn't too much of a strawman here), then I urge you to give it another try. Learning React doesn't have to be the only time you open your mind to new ideas and reconsider best practices.
- KurtMueller 12y ago
  Would you mind espousing a bit on what problems we currently face that might not exist in functional languages like Clojure/Haskell? Also, I just started getting into ClojureScript in order to learn Om. I would love to know your thoughts on why it's worth it to learn Clojure/Haskell.
  - chenglou 12y ago
    I don't want to go further into a language/library/ecosystem war here. Glad to talk more about it on #reactjs though =).
elwell 12y ago
Swanodette has already posted on his blog about immutable-js [0]. [0] - http://swannodette.github.io/2014/07/30/hijacking-json/ http://swannodette.github.io/2014/07/30/hijacking-json/

leebyron 12y ago

Personally, a good amount! I know a lot of the React team are also big fans of Om. React has always been inspired by functional programming and I think in another universe we would have preferred to write it in Scala or Haskell or Clojure. With React (and this Immutable lib) we've been trying to incorporate ideas of functional programming into JavaScript product while still feeling familiar and "native to JS".

chenglou 12y ago

I contribute to React. I'm definitely a big fan of ClojureScript and I borrow ideas from it when I can. I currently have a few crazy ideas that are direct results of looking into the Clojure (or Haskell) ecosystem and finding that they've solved my problems, but better. In general, some of the problems we face, at language/library/ecosystem level, might simply not exist in these languages. It's a shame they're not more popular. Regarding popularity, I feel that sometimes the web development community can be ironically dogmatic, considering that it's a free and open platform (see: HN/Reddit's initial reaction to React). Looking back, I still find it incredible that React actually gained so much traction when it defies so many of the pre-established "best practices". I think lots of people, including me, are learning more and more to take a step back before dismissing an idea. So if you were one of those that dismissed Clojure/ClojureScript because "parentheses in front of my function call?", "snake case isn't for me", or "it's too different from idiomatic js" (I hope this one isn't too much of a strawman here), then I urge you to give it another try. Learning React doesn't have to be the only time you open your mind to new ideas and reconsider best practices.

KurtMueller 12y ago
Would you mind espousing a bit on what problems we currently face that might not exist in functional languages like Clojure/Haskell? Also, I just started getting into ClojureScript in order to learn Om. I would love to know your thoughts on why it's worth it to learn Clojure/Haskell.
- chenglou 12y ago
  I don't want to go further into a language/library/ecosystem war here. Glad to talk more about it on #reactjs though =).

elwell 12y ago

Swanodette has already posted on his blog about immutable-js [0]. [0] - http://swannodette.github.io/2014/07/30/hijacking-json/ http://swannodette.github.io/2014/07/30/hijacking-json/