React v. Angular
We have just about completed the first week of our language specialty at The Iron Yard. I am going the React route and loving it! Our other options were Java and Ruby, but back-end does not appeal to me as much as front-end. I could do full-stack (if it’s Node), but I wouldn’t want to have a job that’s just back-end. That would be pretty unfulfilling for me.
I had an interview yesterday for a position that would be a little bit of Angular and/or React. This intrigued me quite a bit. I’ve been pretty focused on React, but I’m wondering about the possibility of learning both side-by-side.
So far, I’m able to finish my daily React projects pretty quickly, giving me time to do them again in Angular. That was going pretty well until today. You see, React makes sense to me. I can easily look at a layout, break it out into components, and get it working with little effort. However, getting Angular ready to go is a different story, especially when it comes to fetching data. From what I can tell, you can’t use a regular fetch method. Here’s what it might look like in React:
componentDidMount() {
fetch('someurl').then((reponse) => {
return response.json();
}).then((results) => {
this.setState({
// put the results somewhere and do something with them
})
})
}All of this makes perfect sense to me. But fetching data in Angular looks nothing like this. It’s going to take me some time to figure it out, but I think I’ll get there. I also don’t enjoy Angular as much as React. It’s something I want to know how to do, but just have in my back pocket in case I need it. I expect that React will be the front-end framework I reach for first if given the option.
The interview process is going well. I think I need to work on being okay with thinking through answers before speaking. I don’t mean long stretches of silences (that’s awkward). I just mean assessing the problem, and then answering, instead of trying to do both simultaneously. I know I am a good programmer (and I can usually program quickly), but when I program, I don’t also have to speak about it on the spot. I think practice verbalizing my code, or “mouth coding” as Chris Coyier and Dave Rupert from the Shop Talk Show say, would go a long way in preparing for interviews.
In the meantime, I’m going to keep programming away and job-searching. I think my final project will really be something great and beneficial to musicians. It could do well in Austin and Dallas for sure.
