29 comments

  • Blaine KBlaine K, over 2 years ago

    Good article.

    Vue is likely the best starting point, it gets you using most of the concepts and it's easier to integrate into a project bit by bit so you don't get to overwhelmed.

    7 points
  • Andy MerskinAndy Merskin, over 2 years ago

    As an avid user of Angular 1.x in the past, I would absolutely vouch for Vue.js as it seems to be the more intuitive option of the three, and is insanely quick to get running. It also works well in CodePen by simply including the library and prototyping something quick.

    Its simplest features are its strongest, and when you need more advanced things like slots, async components, etc. it works smoothly without having to hack and break your code. If there's a use case, Vue probably covers it! While its core features are pretty conventional, it's also very flexible and lets you break it gracefully in those weird few cases.

    Their documentation has expanded quite a bit since 2.0's release, but it has still kept its use of special lingo to a minimum, and intertwines best practices all over the place, making you a better Javascript developer in general.

    Last, play around a bit with their examples. They're great. :)

    See more reasons to use Vue.js on Quora

    6 points
  • Alec LomasAlec Lomas, over 2 years ago

    First of all: learn JavaScript, and picking up any of these is pretty trivial (getting good at one is another story; just like any tool that will take time). Second of all: I prefer Vue's single-file components to React's JSX and Angular's approach. I found it much easier to get started, since I was already familiar with every part of the component.

    5 points
  • Peter Vogt, over 2 years ago

    Shoutout to the author for noting that one ought to learn vanilla JS first. Absolutely 100% spot on. Don't even touch any of those other three until you understand object oriented programming principles / terminology, type conversion, methods, functions, loops, etc in basic JS.

    Beyond that, it'll mostly be on a case by case basis with your employer, I've found, as someone who has transitioned into development work from design.

    2 points
    • John Z, over 2 years ago

      you need to learn functional programming, not object oriented programming for javascript.

      1 point
      • Andre YanesAndre Yanes, over 2 years ago

        Javascript is a multi-paradigm languange. So you need an understanding of Object-Oriented and Functional programming.

        If you use something like ES6, where classes are supported (an OO concept), then you'll definitely be needing some OO background.

        3 points
        • Taylor PalmerTaylor Palmer, over 2 years ago

          Author here. Thanks for the shoutout! Completely agree.

          I don't have a good grasp of OO principles, but feel that I have a decent understanding of JS. It seems to be that that OO becomes more important the deeper you get into components, however.

          1 point
          • Jake Lazaroff, over 2 years ago

            Sometimes! It depends. React is often used with libraries that manage state such as Redux, so you could create strictly functional components that get all their state from the store. On the other hand, you might not need Redux, in which case your higher components will probably contain state (OO) while your leaf components won't (functional).

            Object-oriented and functional programming are both toolsets, and eventually you'll learn where and when to use them.

            1 point
        • John Z, over 2 years ago

          I agree with you. my response is in context to "don't touch angular,react, or vue js until you learn object oriented programming principles".

          designers will get a lot more mileage learning functional concepts first. you need to understand higher order functions, callbacks, pure functions, and closures in order to grasp angular or react. it's what these entire frameworks are built on. never used vue so cant speak about that subject.

          0 points
          • Peter Vogt, over 2 years ago

            You abstracted away almost all of the meat of what I had said, which I think makes for a pretty unfair representation of what I was trying to get across. OOP concepts was just one of things I listed. To boot, your initial response was equally misleading by your own standard, since JS is both inherently functional and OO.

            0 points
  • Nye YarringtonNye Yarrington, over 2 years ago

    Currently, making heavy use of React Storybook to design at the component level and then test in-context: https://voice.kadira.io/introducing-react-storybook-ec27f28de1e2

    2 points
  • Andre YanesAndre Yanes, over 2 years ago

    I've been working with MithrilJS which is smaller and equally powerful as the libraries mentioned here.

    I think it's a good choice for any designer who wants to gain a solid understanding of Javascript. The framework exposes you to working with vanilla JS and the virtual dom, instead of putting abstractions where you end up knowing only about the framework.

    It's also faster to execute and to start working with, they've done a great job at making a out-box working framework.

    That being said, if you want to bump up your portfolio, then adding React would definitely be a good choice.

    2 points
  • Gen Uine, over 2 years ago

    When's the VueJS for Dummies book coming out?

    1 point
  • Brian HintonBrian Hinton, over 2 years ago

    Preact! https://preactjs.com

    0 points
  • Hanu ManHanu Man, over 2 years ago

    I had in mind learn React, cause I want to use Gatsby for a personal project. But now I have doubts if would worth learn React. I am designer so, beyond tecnical features, I just looking for a clean and fast way to express me with code.

    When I tried to start with Gatsby, seemed like all the code was written in mandarin chinese. Not even I can understand its file structure. Was really frustrating. But well, I decided start from scratch and learn the javascript fundaments.

    0 points
    • Taylor PalmerTaylor Palmer, over 2 years ago

      Oh cool, is that like Jekyll? Can't go wrong starting from scratch!

      0 points
      • Hanu ManHanu Man, over 2 years ago

        Much more powerful than Jekyll, even offers the possibility of build SPA without hard configurations.

        In fact, I opted for Gatsby... cause Jekyll is not full soported on Windows and all static site generators that I tested (Roots, Spike, Harp, Wintersmith, Reptar,Hexo, Poet, and so on) didn't solved my needs entirely, or simply didn't meet what they promised :/

        0 points
    • Sacha GreifSacha Greif, over 2 years ago

      React + Gatsby is a super powerful combo! Gatsby can be a little hard to get into at first but it definitely pays off. If it helps you can take a look at the code for my personal site, which uses Gatsby.

      0 points
  • Brad Siefert, over 2 years ago

    I personally don't understand why the trend of coupling HTML & JS together is so popular right now. I'm much more of a fan of the way Angular (especially v1) deals with HTML compared to React and Vue (to a lesser degree). I should say, I don't know JS at all, and that's the main reason why I like them decoupled.

    0 points
  • John Grass, 2 years ago

    Should designers learn JS or any framework like React, Angular or Vue?

    0 points