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Comment by k__ | Hacker News Reader

I started JS in 2011 with ExtJS 4 and it was pretty awesome.

Later it got too bloated and expensive and I switched to Ember.

Whole other thing. Missed all the widgets ExtJS had out of the box. Also, it seemed that Ember used MVC like ExtJS, but had a totally different idea about it.

Now use React and craft most widgets by hand, didn't expect a framework to be so flexible.

React components feel like using the ExtJS xTypes again, really nice.

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Sencha were working on a project called ExtReact that allowed you to use ExtJS components in React, replacing the JSON-style component declaration syntax with JSX. This would have been pretty amazing - as ExtJS' biggest strength was always the variety and depth of their components (especially the grid).

I feel like newer frameworks are catching up. I recently started using semantic-ui-react and so far I really like it. It's nowhere near as complete as Ext (doesn't even have a grid, just simple tables), but the trade off of cleaner and simpler development is a good one IMO

I love Vue and React. It's the UI layer where things don't match up, however. There are plenty of examples of UI frameworks, some which sit atop React/Vue, that on the surface look to have everything ExtJS offers. Ext had hidden strength behind the scenes though. The Ext.util.Observable pattern for event handling; the Ext.data package for binding component data to server-side back-ends using Ajax, REST and SOAP proxies; under appreciated features such as keyboard navigation and state management with options to persist to cookies and local storage. At the time it felt bloated and the learning curve was crazy, but looking back on it in an age where heavy client-side JS apps reign supreme, it actually doesn't look all that bad.

I worked at a company for 4 years that used Ext for everything. I got to know the framework really well. Everything you say is true, but I honestly don't miss it. I like that React (I've never used Vue), leaves this open to your choice.

Sencha really wanted their customers to lock into Ext and not be able to leave. I like that modern solutions are about choice and flexibility.

I avoid stuff like react elements or native base and try to do all components myself.

These things often bring problems when you try to update the framework, because they're always behind.

Sometimes I have to pull in a few components, like navigation or carrousels because things get to complex or I lack the time, but I usually try to let the UI be self-contained.

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