I had also avoided modern web up until very recently. I focused only on Django sites and wrote custom JavaScript as necessary.
I even did a 3 month django project with a view that was almost entirely JavaScript—it would have been a perfect candidate for react but I refused.
As a compromise with myself I used es6 js on that and eliminated use of jQuery from my code.
About a month ago I started work on react. I had very similar feelings going in and was annoyed at having to figure out the node dependency thing.
And I was aghast at the “tool chain” which is the post processing you need to do on React and other modern front end.
However, I was really surprised at how much better it is to build front end using this rather than html templates and sprinkles of js.
I was also surprised to find out that the django community barely has a pulse compared to what is happening in react.
It’s safe back there, but there is no innovation. Once you see what is happening in modern web, it feels like a ghost town.
I think it’s a pretty good time to get into React right now. CRA just got an update, functional components are mainstream and now there is this nextjs.
I encourage you to give react a try, at the very least it will make you think more about why you’re building the way you are.
I even did a 3 month django project with a view that was almost entirely JavaScript—it would have been a perfect candidate for react but I refused.
As a compromise with myself I used es6 js on that and eliminated use of jQuery from my code.
About a month ago I started work on react. I had very similar feelings going in and was annoyed at having to figure out the node dependency thing. And I was aghast at the “tool chain” which is the post processing you need to do on React and other modern front end.
However, I was really surprised at how much better it is to build front end using this rather than html templates and sprinkles of js.
I was also surprised to find out that the django community barely has a pulse compared to what is happening in react.
It’s safe back there, but there is no innovation. Once you see what is happening in modern web, it feels like a ghost town.
I think it’s a pretty good time to get into React right now. CRA just got an update, functional components are mainstream and now there is this nextjs.
I encourage you to give react a try, at the very least it will make you think more about why you’re building the way you are.