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Comment by tashoecraft | Hacker News Reader

I think React is both and when you describe it as either will depend on how you're using it. If you have a website with a couple of React components here and there, then you have React the library. If you have your app setup as a SPA, with react router, redux, react forms, maybe you started the app with createReactApp, etc, then you are using React the framework. I don't see how you can argue it's not a framework when every single piece of your app is a react specific piece. It's no longer just a view layer, it's an ecosystem of modules whose common ground is to turn React into a framework.

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>If you have you're app setup as a SPA, with react router, redux, react forms, maybe you started the app with createReactApp, etc, then you are using React the framework

react-router, redux etc. are all different libraries. Point still stands: You have to pick and assemble these different parts yourself. And then still all those libraries don't call into your code, but your code includes and wires them up.

Whether or not they are different libraries doesn't matter. Once you've done any real development with them good luck trying to take out your small, simple library and replace it with another. Why are so many React devs so against the word framework, it's like they treat it how many treat monolith "It's a bad word we can't be compared against, even when you can't tell us apart"

Well I sometimes use react to replace a component, such as develop a button which needs to be clicked twice to submit just by simple state management.

Though I don't know if it still can be considered as framework or not.

Then it's a library, which I stated in my first comment "If you have a website with a couple of React components here and there, then you have React the library.". I'm mostly just trying to point out was seems to be an aversion to the word framework by the react community, when in most cases it is. It's not bad to be a framework, it has loads of benefits, but it's not a bad word that needs to be reviled at all times.

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