Even though she’s been around for awhile, Angular hasn’t lost her popularity. More and more companies are giving preference to Angular when it comes to their webpage development. Why might that be? In reality, there is a whole gamma of good reasons, and some of the key participants in the digital world have been quick to pick up on them. Angular seems to be the answer for those looking to build a Single Page Application (SPA).
Why would the end user care about how a website was made? This frontend JavaScript framework allows for a greater experience: a page does not need reloading for users to see updates when a message is received (just think of Gmail) or comments are made on it. That’s what makes a difference between a regular page and an SPA application (source).
A great variety of companies and organizations is using Angular to do their web design. Here is the list of top 15 web pages and web apps: YouTube for PS3, weather.com, GoodFilms, freelancer.com, netflix.com, upwork.com, angularjs.org (not surprisingly!), istockphoto.com, jetblue.com, landsend.com, wikiwand.com, MobileRoadie.com, Posse, MealShaker, MallZee.
Angular has maintained popularity ever since her release back in 2009. The reason? Well, there are at least ten good ones, according to Anton Tymchuk. First of all, since the use of this framework is so widespread already, anyone joining the community won’t have any trouble if they run into an issue — they will always find a helping hand. The code is more lightweight due to the fact that Angular uses a declarative paradigm, while directives — which expand the HTML code — lead your attention to logic creation, making your work more efficient. Since you can develop faster, even big applications can be tackled. Angular also uses a component-based Model-View-Controller pattern which allows for an easy creation of SPAs. Besides, other SPA-friendly features, such as forms validation capabilities — both built-in or created by the developer. It is also possible to combine several modules (dependent or autonomous) when creating an app, as well as solve problems with “ready-made modules”, like the one for routing. What’s more, any changes made in the user interface can be seen immediately in the application objects, and the other way around. Finally, Angular allows you to test your work easily (source).
These reasons make it clear why Angular is still a tool of choice for so many. And yet, there is another very important one — the use of TypeScript (TS). In the words of Victor Savkin, who specializes in Angular, there are several great reasons for this change: an awesome set of tools, TS being a superset of JavaScript (JS), abstractions made explicit, and a code that is more understandable. First of all, especially if working on a big project, the autocompletion, navigation and refactoring made available with TS are pretty much a must. When using TS, one does not run a serious risk while trying to refactor on a significant scale. Unlike other languages that also compile to JS, this one goes far beyond being just a compiler.
Secondly, since TS is JavaScript’s superset, it isn’t necessary to do any major rewriting when migrating from one to the other. Migration can actually be done one step at a time: .js files should be renamed as .ts and type annotations added. Once you’ve gone through all the modules, you can work on making the compiler settings stricter.
One more reason is the fact that TS makes abstractions more explicit. It all comes down to a good definition of an interface — an idea can be expressed in a much more efficient way if there is a supported language. Yet, at the same time, the developer is not forced to introduce extra abstractions or deal with tight coupling (a typical scenario in the absence of interfaces — which, in turn, leads to inexpressive boundaries — as is the case with JS).
Finally, clarity is key: even though a typed signature isn’t as short as an untyped one, there is no room left for doubt as to whether the first argument of a function is a string, for instance, or which of the options can be passed into the functions (their types, and not just their names). The use of TS eliminates the necessity of checking the source code or documentation, which may not even be up-to-date — a time saver, thanks to Ms. Angular’s efficiency (source).
With such amazing character traits, no wonder Angular is still causing admiration among her loyal buddies. Who wouldn’t want to continue their friendship with Ms. Angular, knowing she has so much to offer to a frontend developer? Her best buddy TypeScript helps create a more stable code, provides auto-complete, compile time errors and warnings, as well as strong type, allowing for a much greater productivity. More and more developers are actually joining her fan club — they even have an option of using her as a standalone IDE or as a plug-in for Eclipse.
Angular is also part of our CodeMix plugin and our MyEclipse IDE.