AiA 145 Why I’m Still Betting on Angular with Shai Reznik

On today’s episode of Adventure in Angular, we have panelists Alyssa Nicoll, Joe Eames, along with Charles Max Wood. We have a special guest Shai Reznik from Hirez.io, a website and video web development course series that mixes information with a few laughs. Today we are figuring out why Shai is still betting on Angular. It’s a fun show, we hope you check it out!

Why are you still betting on Angular?

Shai has been getting this question a lot. He tells us about working on Angular courses for his website hires.io He has two courses out so far, first being a course on Angular basics, a second course on Why Angular? Shai suggests that picking a framework is essentially gambling. He also gave a talk “Why I’m betting my future on Angular 2,” focused on the non technical reasons that he is sticking with Angular. If you teach someone without experience about web development and ask them to pick a framework without guidance it’s a disservice. Once that person has gained experience, then they can choose on their own.

Shai’s Decision Method

At HiRez.io he had to pick a specific framework. Shai has been working on comparing different frameworks for years, including React and ViewJS. He adds that when you see talks or documentation on framework, you’re seeing a showcase of the best parts. It isn’t until you work with it that you find the quirks and issues. Part of what he did to learn the frameworks were to simulate real life scenarios. He also came up with a set of requirements to help him. The main question being “Does it handle scaling?” He found that React leans more towards libraries while Angular is more of a framework. It comes down to integration. Building your own framework from a library can be a good practice if you want to become a more professional JavaScript developer. Shai suggests that its like building your own computer instead of buying a brand new one. The issue is with JavaScript, the updates come weekly and so building your own framework from a library comes with a cost. Developed frameworks tend to handle that level of integration for you.

Less Mental Overhead with Angular

Charles adds that Angular allows him to make things without worrying about when to use things like Redux or Mobix and it just works. There is less mental overhead along with available expertise because everyone is generally using the same stack. React can have a shorter learning curve, and both communities have about the same number of proficient users as a resource. Both seem to be equal in those ways. Having choices keep things on the innovative edge. Shai talks about the Angular team and how innovative they tend to be. Aimee adds that their attitude about Angular is also genuine, giving an example of when they are approached with issues, they are open to discussing them.

Dependency Injecting

ViewJS is also a framework. The one thing that is missing is dependency injection ,which in Shia’s opinion is one of the biggest selling features of Angular. It allows for easier code testing and in Angular 2 it has been improved even more. He adds that some developers can be lazy and not write tests and for them it wouldn’t matter. Angular also prides itself as a JavaScript framework, and so no typescript. When working on a big team, being able to see immediately where things are broken is very helpful and is a plug for Angular.

Evolving communities

Joe says that Angular has a great community and he like Angular because of his familiarity. Shai adds that all three are great solutions. Angular just happens to fit well with his current situation. He had to switch from old technologies or communities because they got stuck in the past. ViewJS is picking up popularity and in a couple years will have a strong community. He adds that while the community and support system is great, it’s not the main reason he stays.

Will the market for Angular courses be sustainable?

Shai mentions that it seems to come in waves, a certain technology will have hype come in every six months or so. That hype leading to adoption and then months later the adoption rate drops down. This is something he witnessed with Angular 1 in 2012 with 1.0. It took 6 months to a year for people to learn about it and adopt it. It wasn’t until 2013 or 2014 when React came out, early adopters jump on React and started creating hype for it. Some of React solved the pain points for Angular. We are getting to the end of the adoption wave of React. It’s hard to tell how long React and ViewJS will be popular. The new Angular will bring a new wave and peak in demand in a year or so. Shai adds that this is his bet and he may be wrong. He sees that it handles small apps or big apps, having the ability to scale and that is important. Charles adds that Ruby on Rails had a similar cycle. Ruby has stop being in the media as much because it’s becoming stable, but the community is strong there either way. Shai mentions that he doesn’t see these frameworks like React going away soon because they solve real issues. If you zoom out from the discussion, these frameworks are all part of a big JavaScript family. Listens can comment on this episode on what frameworks they’ve choose and why.

Picks

Joe

NGDoc.io
Persistence

Alyssa

HiRez.io

Charles

Rush Revere and the American Revolution
Palto Alto Firefighter’s Hot Sauce

Shia

Futur Youtube
Decorators
HiRez.io

Links

HiRez Twitter
Shai Twitter

Special Guest: Shai Reznik.