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Comment by gramstrong | Hacker News Reader

> First reason is we hate JSX. It forces you to write loops, conditionals, etc, outside of the markup you are currently writing/reading. It's like writing shitty PHP code without templates.

You could theoretically write some template components and "avoid" javascript altogether. I wonder if anyone has actually done that?

JSX isn't perfect, but I find the dirty things about it can be mitigated by keeping your components small, and if that isn't possible then keeping the render function small by breaking it out into several functions that return pieces of your markup. Writing small functions is sound general programming advice, but it seems especially true with JSX/React.

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Yes, there is a project called react-templates by Wix that does that.

We used it, but once you start using libraries like that one or MobX, why even use React at all?

>We used it, but once you start using libraries like that one or MobX, why even use React at all?

Well, you've got a point. I can realistically see some developers preferring to piece-meal their front end solution though, or build just the parts they need themselves. I like Vue, but the API seems enormous. I get that a lot of people like that about it, though.

Personally I don't think Vue's API is that big. Most of the bread and butter stuff are learned in an afternoon.

IMO the argument that React's API is really small is a fallacy since React is but a small piece in your project. You get nowhere without a router, local and global state management, transitions, etc.

The other factor to consider after the learning curve is productivity. Vue has a pragmatic nature and in my personal experience I can get the job done faster.

I think React is idealistic.

http://objectivism101.com/Glossary/Idealism_Pragmatism.shtml

I'm surprised to hear you say that Vue has a large API, because one of my reasons for adopting Vue was its small API. It allowed me to hold a mental model of the API in my head.

You can go through the entire docs in less than an hour and get down to business. I did not have this experience with Angular 1 (don't know about v2) or React.

I don't think I buy your defence. Sure, you can make JSX look readable - if you decompose your markup into a thousand scattered functions. But this just swaps one problem for another: indirect code, verbosity, not being able to see the component markup at a glance.

I just feel JSX is too awkward and verbose to be pleasant working.

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