React is just about dirty-checking the view, while Angular dirty-checks the model.
I mean, seriously, that's the main difference conceptually. You just modify some data structure and both frameworks will update some view.
I mean, seriously, that's the main difference conceptually. You just modify some data structure and both frameworks will update some view.
I will also point out that Angular essentially re-implements JavaScript in the form of extensions to html. EG, if you want to iterate over something in React, you use map while Angular makes use of ng-repeat.
React runs its dirty check only after a state change obligates it to. As your model gets larger and larger, dirty-checking the model on every digest loop starts to have performance problems.
Oversimplification can be incredibly misleading.
Good reading material by a team member - http://victorsavkin.com/post/110170125256/change-detection-i... and http://victorsavkin.com/post/114168430846/two-phases-of-angu...
An early beta comparo - http://www.roblog.io/js-repaint-perfs/angular2/opt.html vs http://www.roblog.io/js-repaint-perfs/react/opt.html - should probably update these with the latest RC.
One could mitigate this by calling $scope.$apply() after every change. But if you have to apply() all changes, then what's the point of having angular handle synchronization?
Yes, shockingly, we don't save those keystrokes, but we also don't have the elaborate dirty checking. The developer of a component is extremely likely to make sure during development that the update to a state has updated the view. Of course, you could just hook up React or VDOM or mirthril and it's totally complementary to what we do.