Facebook - React JS

03 Apr 2015

Topics

• Virtual DOM
• Interactive vs Reactive
• Observable

Interactive

• Passive: exposes functions so others can change it
• Proactive: changes and forces passive modules

Passive is BAD

• “Someone else is responsible for me.”

Roles in Reactive Programming

• Reactive: listens to events, and exposes events that can listened by others
• No other role
• “I am in full control over myself.”

What is react?

• Virtual DOM Rendering
• Reusable hierarchical components
• Hides Virtual DOM data structure from the programmer
• Mostly Passive API
• Not a framework, an opinionated building block
• React virtual elements are not observable

Criticism

• Great ideas, bad API
• React is not Reactive Programming
• Rendering is Reactive, all the rest is Passive
• React is unsuitable for Reactive Programming
• React could be better

Virtual DOM alternatives

• https://github.com/Raynos/mercury
• http://lhorie.github.io/mithril/ (MVC)

References

• http://staltz.com/dont-react/