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Many times it becomes very difficult for software architects to choose, why one technology should be picked over the other, which is already available in the market since decades and serving the purpose with almost no regret.
This time it is about Angular v/s plain Vanilla JavaScript or jQuery.
When we think of designing an interactive and intuitive user interface for our customers, the first thing that comes into our mind “Why not to choose the proven ways, what’s wrong in going with the technologies in which we have tons of expertise and which will serve the purpose in much lesser costs”
Yes, there are some technologies in the market since decades, which are really cheap to use and develop the same solution for our clients in much lesser cost.
So the obvious question comes, why to opt for modern technologies like Angular, when our clients have to bear the increasing cost of solution.
Can’t we just use plain Vanilla JavaScript or jQuery?
Well the answer is, YES we can use plain Vanilla JavaScript or jQuery. jQuery was built to resolve issues developer had faced while writing code in Vanilla JavaScript.
In fact there are thousands of applications out there built with these technologies. But the problem with jQuery like library or Vanilla JavaScript is, as our application grows and gets more complex, programs written in plain JavaScript or jQuery becomes very difficult to maintain.
To maintain big programs or big applications we need to have a way to build them in proper structure.
Now the question comes, there are many JavaScript patterns already available, so why not use any like prototype pattern, that will help us in structuring our complex application in a manner it can be maintained in future when it grows.
But the problem with these patterns is they are really hard for many JavaScript beginners to understand. In addition, if one wants to do unit testing of such JavaScript units, again it is really difficult to do so.
To overcome such issues, in recent years many frameworks have been developed and continuously improved by developer communities to make web application development a bit easier than before.
It is always a better choice to go with a framework instead of using plain Vanilla programming language. Building front-end by using any jQuery like JavaScript library, it is similar to developing application in plain Vanilla programming language.
Though libraries provide a better interface to the core features of any language, still they do not provide an overall structured way to develop an application.
Angular… is it really a better way to go with?
To get the answer, we need to dig into why Angular is a better way to program front-end in a client/web application.
Angular is a mature open source client / web application framework that can be used in building web applications in HTML, CSS and JavaScript (TypeScript).
Angular was developed to allow developers to write client applications very easily in more efficient and structured way so that client applications can be built faster by coding less for extended functionalities and easier with better code quality.
Angular comes out of the box with all these features.
Angular gives a way to develop web applications by using comparatively cleaner model view controller like architecture.
This framework based modular code is readable, easy to understand as well as easy to maintain with future enhancements.
Angular also brings many reusable utilities with it, these utilities can be used in different applications like managing user navigation or maintaining browser history etc.
When it comes to testing, applications built with Angular are more testable. Developers can easily create automated tests to validate different parts of the application.
With Angular it is a lot easier to bind user interface with data. Even two-way data binding in Angular comes out of the box.
Another good reason to use Angular is, a developer has to work really hard to write some bad code in Angular. Angular does not allow very easily to do so.
In fact, it helps in writing clean and standard code that can easily be understood and maintained in future.
Conclusion, yes it is not a must to have an Angular like framework to build client / web applications but using such a framework definitely can make it easier to develop rich, interactive, maintainable applications with much better quality code by putting lesser time and efforts.
Angular is definitely a better way to develop client applications.
