The JavaScript Developer’s Reading List

The JavaScript Developer’s Reading List” is yet another hand-picked collection of books and resources for web developers in general and JavaScript programmers in particular. The selection is mostly focused around React and GraphQL, but there are plenty of more generic resources about JavaScript, software development, and Computer Science.

On React and WordPress


I have a great deal of respect for Automattic in general and Matt Mullenweg in particular.  They have done an amazing job with WordPress, which is now used by more than a quarter of all websites.  But they are also a great example of how companies can work in the Open Source software space.

It’s not all just business.  Automattic raises the ethics bar quite high.  And today there is an excellent example of how they do it.  Check out this blog post by Matt on why WordPress will be moving away from the React JavaScript framework developed by Facebook:

I think Facebook’s clause is actually clearer than many other approaches companies could take, and Facebook has been one of the better open source contributors out there. But we have a lot of problems to tackle, and convincing the world that Facebook’s patent clause is fine isn’t ours to take on. It’s their fight.

Respect!




Angular vs. React vs. Vue: A 2017 comparison


Angular vs. React vs. Vue: A 2017 comparison” is a very lengthy and detailed comparison of the top three most popular JavaScript frameworks: Angular, React and Vue.  There are also lots of links and references for further reading, but even if you don’t leave the article, chances are you’ll have a pretty good idea of which framework suits you best.  For me, it looks like it’s Vue.

And as a side note, this quote made me smile:

The dirty little secret is that most “modern JavaScript development” is nothing to do with actually building websites — it’s building packages that can be used by people who build libraries that can be used by people who build frameworks that people who write tutorials and teach courses can teach.I’m not sure anyone is actually building anything for actual users to interact with.




React vs Angular vs Ember vs Vue.js


Following the yesterday’s post on WordPress choosing the JavaScript framework, here comes a rather extensive review of React, Angular, Ember, and Vue.  This one looks at the four frameworks from different perspectives, provides feature lists, and has a tonne of links to external resources for more information.