What I wish I knew about React
React have <i>sold</i> very well the &quot;it&#x27;s a library&quot; mantra. I find this, at least, <i>bends</i> the difference to build a <i>marketing</i> point around it.<p>The point they make, and the one everyone writing about React simply repeats, is that &quot;it doesn&#x27;t give you everything&quot; so you can use it with any other library&#x2F;framework without trouble. While this claim may be indeed correct, it doesn&#x27;t mean it&#x27;s a library. React is a <i>UI framework</i>. It&#x27;s not a complete Application Framework, sure, and you may mix it with other stuff. In fact, you will generally mix it with other stuff. But I don&#x27;t think that the difference library vs framework lies in providing for all of the aspects of the application or just for some parts of it.<p>In this particular case, the author seems to have overstepped that somewhat, saying &quot;With a framework, you’re essentially given all the materials to build that house, and it’s up to you in what arrangement you put them in.&quot;<p>And in there lies the problem. That is not a framework. That&#x27;s Home Depot. A framework does indeed tell you in what arrangement you&#x27;re supposed to put the materials. It&#x27;s in fact this that makes it a framework. It gives you structure. Or at least, the basis for the structure. You put your materials into the arrangement the framework suggests.<p>React is only concerned with UI, sure. But then again it <i>does</i> give you quite a bit of structure. It does tell you how you&#x27;re supposed to arrange and build your UI. You extend <i>this</i> class with these methods, or you create this kind of function using these functions in this way. You put your rendering <i>here</i>, and return it in <i>this</i> way... and then the framework will run it.<p>What is correct is that React is for <i>UI</i>. So, sure, it will not tell you how you should do your API calls. But not because it&#x27;s not a framework, but because API calls are not a UI concern.