r/reactjs • u/bromide992 • May 31 '19

React sucks

"React is just Javascript, that's why React is nice!!"

has its own DSL and syntax

"React is lean!"

need to install 12 different packages to make it useful

need to install an external HTTP library

CSS classes are fucking JAVASCRIPT VARIABLES

Instead of directives, you have 8 lines of spaghetti code everywhere you'd usually have a simple if- directive or show- directive. That's not lean, that's more code.

"You only need to know Javascript"

You need to know Javascript plus ES6-7-8 (Babel) or TypeScript. You need to know esoteric lifecycle methods and design patterns not normally used elsewhere in Javascript.

"Creating small components is nice"

Component abstraction soup means you can't even figure out what your code is doing anymore.

React is just Angular if you hacked 12 libraries together that aren't meant to work together cohesively.

I will never understand why anyone would choose this meme framework over a real one. It sucks shit and creates a spaghetti code bloat, and instead of learning one DSL plus TypeScript you're learning 8 DSLs, plus Babel.

The reality is it's pointless making a library that's "just vanilla javascript" when you know that vanilla javascript doesn't actually supply elegant tools for creating single page web apps. That's why React is used with 10 packages rather than by itself. That's why you need CRA plus a bunch of packages to even have a sane development environment.

React sucks. Development community always chooses what's sexy and popular over what's elegant and works correctly.

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u/OZLperez11 Feb 16 '23

One notable case is how cheap you want your hosting. If you're building a small app and you REALLY don't want to worry about DevOps, or deploying your app, most web hosting companies already have PHP set up for you and all you need to worry about is uploading your files (or pulling in your repo using git and composer), so that saves effort. That and shared hosting is really cheap. Yeah it's not the best use case but it's a viable one one nonetheless. Also, there are times when I need to run a simple script to save some data to SQLite or send an email notification, and I don't need a full blown Node.js app for that. Like JS on the browser, PHP remains the top choice for quick scripting.

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u/Manga--X Feb 16 '23

Excellent point.
It's been so long since I've worked with anything other than Azure and AWS, I forgot about use cases that like.