Google's further version insanity: Angular Edition
-
So, I don't normally follow Angular stuff, but in a discussion about other topics on Reddit, it was mentioned that Google is adopting an even crazier release cycle for Angular than they did for Chrome.
- New bugfix versions weekly
- New minor releases monthly
- New major versions every 6 months
Sure, that means its version number will go up more slowly than Chromes, but it also means you get 6 new versions of Angular for every new version of Chrome. For a framework/library that is embedded in other peoples websites.
To me, that's absolutely insane.
Side note: Angular is also skipping version 3.
-
@powerlord Why is this a problem?
If there is a nice feature recently developed, it is nice to have a formalized release containing it.
If you don't need the new feature or have no time to switch, you can ignore it - because it is part of your website, fully under your control.
It is a client-side web UI framework so there are no security updates to worry about.I prefer this clear approach instead of keeping software infinitely in "alpha" (for what purpose?).
For an example, see Steam and their "early access" program, which sells games supposedly in development, and is used as an excuse against criticism. The whole idea is strange, since in most games, you enjoy a plot / concept / mechanic for a limited time while it is new and exciting.
-
I assume this is the source for the story?
the Angular team plans to switch to using TypeScript 2.1 or even 2.2 from 1.8 that is currently used now. That will involve some breaking changes which means introducing a new major version.
the product will no longer be called AngularJS, Angular 2, 2.x or 4.x but simply Angular, its version remaining a secondary detail.
The first beta version of Angular 4 (4.0.0-beta.0) is supposed to be released this week
@Adynathos I suppose it depends on how many changes they will make to justify major version bumps...
- what will you see two years from now when you google "how do I <something> with Angular"? How many of those results will still be correct and include best practices, and how many will be rusty solutions for Angular 1? In the PHP world we have that problem with incompetent and insecure tutorials dominating the top of the search results because they've been around for years and misled countless beginners.
- what will you get when you ask the internet for help with Angular 1 (because your entire app is built in it)? "lol upgrade your outdated junkheap you idot"?
- how many attention-deficit
magpiesprimadonnas of the JS ecosystem will skip your company because you're not using the latest and the greatest? (Although, now that I think about it, that could be a net win for your company...) - how many libraries/plugins will maintain compatibility with the old versions of Angular, and how many will require the latest and greatest?
I think this Redditor put it best:
What Angular is saying to these folks is "don't use our framework, unless you don't mind having zero support and the ecosystem abandoning you every 6 months after you update".
But I'm sure Angular 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11... will be very, very popular for startups who need to code up a quick landing page asking for your email, and then never launch a product.
-
@DCoder said in Google's further version insanity: Angular Edition:
what will you see two years from now when you google "how do I <something> with Angular"? How many of those results will still be correct and include best practices, and how many will be rusty solutions for Angular 1? In the PHP world we have that problem with incompetent and insecure tutorials dominating the top of the search results because they've been around for years and misled countless beginners.
Sure, on StackOverflow.
But, and here's the thing: The official docs should be upgraded and released with the software. If you do that, NP; and if you don't, well the job isn't complete, is it? What else would we expect from a half-assed job?
-
What are the alternatives? My company needs to migrate away from a flex frontend and we are considering angular 2 now. Should I be scared? Are there better frameworks out there?
-
@DCoder said in Google's further version insanity: Angular Edition:
- what will you get when you ask the internet for help with Angular 1 (because your entire app is built in it)? "lol upgrade your outdated junkheap you idot"?
I think there should be no worry for this, as from what I understand, Angular 2 is already a version with major breaking change when compared with v1 and this had cased uproar from community so Google agrees they'll continue host the libraries. IMO this can hardly be worse than what has already been.
-
@dangeRuss said in Google's further version insanity: Angular Edition:
What are the alternatives? My company needs to migrate away from a flex frontend and we are considering angular 2 now. Should I be scared? Are there better frameworks out there?
There are more opinions on this question than there are web devs
Personally, I am not a big fan of a kitchen sink approach like Angular, I prefer putting together some specialized libraries, e.g. Crossroads.js for routing + React (no Redux) for rendering + Reqwest for AJAX + Signals for communication + Lodash for utilities. But that's what works for me, there are lots of devs who prefer a single solution like Angular or Ember instead.
Edit: oh, and of course there's TypeScript. TypeScript is the only thing adding sanity to the JS ecosystem.
-
@dangeRuss said in Google's further version insanity: Angular Edition:
Should I be scared?
Maybe. Angular is highly opinionated. If that fits, you'll probably be fine.
To me it looks like it solves the easy problems and makes the difficult problems difficult. So there's no value. Of course I have less than an hour's experience with it, so now you know how much my advice is worth.
@dangeRuss said in Google's further version insanity: Angular Edition:
Are there better frameworks out there?
At work we are now starting to use TypeScript and React/Redux. So far I'm liking it quite a bit. Redux is very clean and simple. The whole combination is quite easy to understand and doesn't try to hide any implementation details the way Angular does.
So give them a try and go with whatever works for you and your team.
-
@another_sam said in Google's further version insanity: Angular Edition:
At work we are now starting to use TypeScript and React/Redux. So far I'm liking it quite a bit. Redux is very clean and simple. The whole combination is quite easy to understand and doesn't try to hide any implementation details the way Angular does.
That's a great combination. One of the cool things you get with React+TypeScript is type safety in views. TypeScript can typecheck React's JSX and
bitchcomplain! when you reference a variable that doesn't exist in scope. Compared to stringly-typed spaghetti used by other templating engines like jQuery tmpl, mustache, Knockout, or Angular 1, it's on a whole different level. (That said, Angular 2 and Vue can convert their templates to JSX as a build step and use that same type checking goodness.)
-
@DCoder said in Google's further version insanity: Angular Edition:
TypeScript can typecheck
There are a lot of holes in the type system because it's just a veneer over JavaScript, but TypeScript still kicks raw JavaScript's arse just because of the type checking. Since I can't get away from JavaScript and the boss won't let me use Scala.js (it doesn't really make sense for our current project architecture anyway), I'll take anything I can get.
