Hello, readership! I am glad that I have been working with Angular since its inception in 2016 and am very happy that I chose this framework. In this article, I’ll show you how Angular can help you with the creation of your next front-end project.
So, here we go – top 7 reasons to choose AngularJS for development in 2020.
Short Learning Curve
If you are new in the world of front-end development, the number of frameworks available may seem overwhelming to you. I won’t go deep into any other frameworks as it will be outside the scope of this article, but I will say that choosing Angular will make your life much easier. Of all the front-end frameworks available, Angular will probably take the least amount of time to learn.
Convenient Angular CLI
The Angular CLI is one of those things that makes the learning curve so short. The learning curve can be shortened even further by using third-party tools like Angular Console (whether you’re new to Angular or not, you’ll love this tool, but it’s not required), which gives you a visual tool for the CLI. One of the main advantages of the CLI is that it takes care of everything you need to do, from creating a new Angular project to deploying services, components, or whatever else your project needs. Many people like the fact that for every new component, service, pipe, etc., the CLI also creates a corresponding test. The CLI also gives you a standardized way to run all tests. This gives you an additional flexibility, letting you know that there is a test in every new file, and you can update the tests at any stage of development.
Angular Standards
The CLI has another added benefit and I should say that it’s very specific. This is a problem for some people, but it should actually help you. When you use Angular CLI, it automatically sets its own set of standards for the project, essentially taking the right steps for Angular. This will help you to avoid a lot of mistakes, especially when you have just started a project. This is really good when you are working with a team or bringing in a new team member. If they are familiar with Angular, they already know how to host your project and they will be effective in a much shorter time frame.
Component Libraries
This is not unique to Angular, that all frameworks have many component libraries that you can use, however the Angular team has created Angular Material which is one of my favorites. If you are not familiar with it, I will tell you a little about the history. In 2014, the good fellows at Google created a design language called Material Design. If you’ve ever used Gmail, you are familiar with this type of design. It gained a lot of popularity from the very beginning. Angular Material is Google’s unique Material Design implementation for Angular, which is great, in my opinion. It encapsulates and standardizes most of the components you will need in order to build any type of website or application. If it does not have the component you need, you can easily create it.
Ivy
Angular Ivy is a new compiler and rendering engine for Angular. It doesn’t fully ship with Angular, but you can use it now. The great thing about Ivy is that it changes how Angular works under the hood without affecting how we build Angular apps.
Incremental DOM
I won’t go into details on what the incremental DOM is. Typically, the virtual DOM uses up a bunch of hosting memory by creating and splitting DOM trees. This is clearly not good for mobile performance. The incremental DOM was designed to use as little memory as possible while displaying changes quickly. In fact, the incremental DOM uses almost no memory. Ivy uses memory only when DOM nodes are being added or removed, and the amount used is directly proportional to the size of the change. This shows its results in significant memory savings and improved mobile performance.
Package Size, Build Time And Tree Shaking
Along with the extra DOM, Ivy also has incredible Tree Shaking capabilities. This just basically removes unused chunks of code, reducing the package size. The cool thing about Ivy is that using the incremental DOM can also be a shock. Angular has traditionally been characterized by much larger package sizes than other frameworks, but they get smaller with each iteration. The same can be said for build times.
Additional Features That Can Make You Choose AngularJS
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Building Size
If you are using Ivy, you can optimize the building size by about 15-20%, but it’s still a bit large when compared to other platforms. The larger the assembly size, the slower the first render. This will be improved over time, but this is definitely Angular’s weak point right now.
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Standardization
Depending on what kind of developer you are, this can really be a double-edged sword. Personally, I love the fact that Angular is specific. I can look at any Angular project and get a really good idea of how things work at a glance.
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Developed By Google
Angular is built and maintained by Google. As we all know, Google engineers are generally known for being exceptional. Some may worry that the fate of Angular may end in the same way, but I don’t think there is a compelling cause for concern. One of the things that doesn’t bother me too much is that when they built Ivy, they rebuilt Angular under the hood, but made sure it didn’t affect the way users write Angular apps. I really hope Angular will live on for a long time.
Conclusion
Whatever your skill level, I hope you decide to give Angular a chance. From my point of view, it has many incredible features and continues to be the top framework until today.