Every point made in this article also applies to Google's Polymer framework. The stuff about having handlers which trigger when an element is attached or detached, the point about updating only the sections of the DOM which changed, the speed, the data binding magic, everything... It all applies to Polymer as well. Except that Polymer was around long before React. Also Polymer doesn't require any special tooling and no build steps necessary.
The point about attachment/detachment handlers also applies to Angular directives by the way. So it is extremely misleading to claim that React is revolutionary because of this. I think Angular was revolutionary, the only real new thing that React brings to the table is that you can have your HTML inline with your code - Some people think that this is the "secret sauce" which makes react so modular and makes its components so well encapsulated, but it is not - Polymer achieves the same level of encapsulation without combining logic with markup.
React is just one of multiple good alternatives which may be better in some scenarios and worse in others.
Developers are being too idealistic about this. I think the web would be a better place for developers if we were more aware of the irrational nature of hype.
I dont have anything against React but I don't like hype. Hype is just excitement in the absense of reasoning. It's the result of good marketing and nothing more.
The point about attachment/detachment handlers also applies to Angular directives by the way. So it is extremely misleading to claim that React is revolutionary because of this. I think Angular was revolutionary, the only real new thing that React brings to the table is that you can have your HTML inline with your code - Some people think that this is the "secret sauce" which makes react so modular and makes its components so well encapsulated, but it is not - Polymer achieves the same level of encapsulation without combining logic with markup.
React is just one of multiple good alternatives which may be better in some scenarios and worse in others.
Developers are being too idealistic about this. I think the web would be a better place for developers if we were more aware of the irrational nature of hype.
I dont have anything against React but I don't like hype. Hype is just excitement in the absense of reasoning. It's the result of good marketing and nothing more.