React Framework Stays Popular Beyond Facebook
React, an open-source JavaScript library for user-interface building, remained the top technology on Hacker News’ ultra-popular “Who is Hiring” thread for the second month in a row. That’s not surprising, considering the popularity of JavaScript, but even the folks who run the Hacker News Hiring Trends Website are wondering how long it’ll last. “While this demonstrates how strong React's hold on the industry is right now, how long can a JavaScript framework remain on top though? History has not been kind to JS frameworks, so my guess is that React will start dropping down by the end of year,” read the text accompanying the rankings. “With Vue.js coming in as the top riser, it's clear the competition is coming.” Other top technologies on the list: Python, JavaScript, AWS, machine learning, node.js, Java, and Postgresql. As with other popular-technology listings (including TIOBE and IEEE), there’s not a whole lot of month-to-month movement among the topmost contenders; what’s popular tends to stay popular, at least for a little while. React started life within Facebook, originally deployed in service of the social network’s newsfeed. A few years later, it went open-source. At F8, this year’s edition of Facebook’s annual developer conference, Facebook executives announced that a VR library was coming to the framework, in anticipation of a companywide push into VR hardware and apps. In addition, a React rewrite (dubbed “React Fiber”) would bring more speed and reliability to the framework. “When we develop React, we’re always looking to see how we can help developers build high-quality apps quicker,” Facebook engineer Ben Alpert told TechCrunch when React Fiber was announced. “We want to make it easier to make apps that perform very well and make them responsive.” Based on the data from Hacker News, the framework has obviously expanded far beyond Facebook; but how long will its popularity last?