[PRE REVIEW]: react-simplified: an easy to use JavaScript UI library with automatic state and property management

[whedon]

Submitting author: !--author-handle-->@eidheim<!--end-author-handle-- (Ole Christian Eidheim) Repository: https://gitlab.com/eidheim/react-simplified Branch with paper.md (empty if default branch): Version: v3.0.3 Editor: !--editor-->@labarba<!--end-editor-- Reviewers: Pending Managing EiC: Jordan Gorzalski

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[whedon]

Wordcount for paper.md is 1177

[whedon]

Software report (experimental):

github.com/AlDanial/cloc v 1.88  T=0.03 s (535.5 files/s, 70655.4 lines/s)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Language                     files          blank        comment           code
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JavaScript                       6            150             55            883
JSON                             3              0              0            339
Markdown                         2             53              0            276
TeX                              1             11              0            109
TypeScript                       1             11             34             22
YAML                             1              5              0             21
HTML                             1              0              0             10
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUM:                            15            230             89           1660
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Statistical information for the repository '85183db416590028a08a62bf' was
gathered on 2021/10/01.
The following historical commit information, by author, was found:

Author                     Commits    Insertions      Deletions    % of changes
Ole Christian Eidhei             1           123              0            4.42
eidheim                         64          1812            847           95.58

Below are the number of rows from each author that have survived and are still
intact in the current revision:

Author                     Rows      Stability          Age       % in comments
eidheim                    1088           60.0         20.5                5.06

[whedon]

Reference check summary (note 'MISSING' DOIs are suggestions that need verification):

OK DOIs

- 10.1016/j.tcs.2004.12.030 is OK
- 10.1109/IRI.2007.4296688 is OK
- 10.1145/2980991 is OK

MISSING DOIs

- None

INVALID DOIs

- None

[whedon]

:point_right::page_facing_up: Download article proof :page_facing_up: View article proof on GitHub :page_facing_up: :point_left:

[labarba]

@whedon query scope

[whedon]

Submission flagged for editorial review.

[labarba]

hi @eidheim — I've added a scope query flag on this submission. It looks like a fairly small wrapper to simplify parts of the web-development workflow. The paper also does not justify the use of this tool in teaching. It's unclear that this is a good fit for JOSE. Can you clarify how you view this as in-scope for JOSE?

[eidheim]

Thank you for the feedback @labarba. The library might be small, but it is the result of extensive research into the available web-development libraries and how we could teach students to develop different types of applications without going outside a typical programming curriculum and focusing too much on peculiarities of these libraries. In a teaching environment we can also disregard current browser compatibilities, which the industry has to consider, and make use of all presently available technologies to make improve the learning experience through a simple to use library without specialised workarounds existing in current libraries.

If you want me to update the article and better justify the use of this library in teaching, I will of course do so. I can do it now, or wait for pre-review to complete?

[csev]

Hi @eidheim - I also took a look at this paper - I like where it is going but also feel the scope is too narrow. It talks about react in general, state management in general, and the general problem this is solving. And it feels like it is based on good underlying work. Some suggestions to make this more of a paper and less of an announcement of a github repository would be to (a) talk about adoption and use of the library outside of the creators of the software and (b) instead of merely documenting how to use the library - show a bit of "before" and "after" in the paper. Not pages and pages - but just a basic example of how state is solved without the library and with the library. Also there are React state management libraries in the ecosystem - talk about them and what your library contributes to the ecosystem. I am interested in this in general as I am starting to learn React myself - and I find state perplexing - but there is little in your paper or documentation that speaks to me as a potential adopter of your library - other than the fact that I feel the same pain as you do :)

[eidheim]

Thank you for the extended feedback @csev, it is much appreciated!

I will update the article based on both yours and @labarba's feedback within a week.

[eidheim]

@labarba and @csev, I have now updated the paper based on your feedback: https://gitlab.com/eidheim/react-simplified/-/commit/5f77ab1daf4958d28fdd15343ba1c9e99de3dde2. In addition to some minor changes, I wrote a paragraph comparing react-simplified to other state management libraries, and added the following three sections: Usage in Teaching and Learning, Teaching and Learning Experience, and Examples.

Since the example widths exceeded the width of the JOSE pdf export, I also changed the column width to 80: https://gitlab.com/eidheim/react-simplified/-/commit/1a6731f3ec87116b8bd46d97a28b76dea7023736.

[labarba]

@whedon generate pdf

[whedon]

:point_right::page_facing_up: Download article proof :page_facing_up: View article proof on GitHub :page_facing_up: :point_left:

[labarba]

Hi @suchow — A while back, you volunteered to review for JOSE (The Journal of Open Source Education). Could you take a look last this submission and let us know if you might be able to volunteer a review for us? Thanks! 🙏 Title: "react-simplified: an easy to use JavaScript UI library with automatic state and property management" View article proof on GitHub

[labarba]

Hi @fbidu — A while back, you volunteered to review for JOSE (The Journal of Open Source Education). Could you take a look last this submission and let us know if you might be able to volunteer a review for us? Thanks! 🙏 Title: "react-simplified: an easy to use JavaScript UI library with automatic state and property management" View article proof on GitHub

[fbidu]

Hi @labarba sure, I can take a look but I'm not all that expert on JavaScript. Probably I can give an overall feedback, though

[labarba]

Thank you, Felipe! One issue we face with this submission is that code-wise it looks fairly small. We need more opinions on whether this amounts to substantial scholarly effort to merit a full publication. We discussed in the editorial board this recently, and we hesitate to use code length (line of code) as a sole value assessment: given our educational focus, if the work has been used in the classroom over some time, perhaps has been evaluated with learners, etc., there is scholarly effort not reflected in loc but that should be explained in the paper.

[fbidu]

@labarba I see... I'll keep that in mind while reviewing! From a cursory look it seems like there's evidence towards classroom usage, but I'll read it closely later

[labarba]

TY, @fbidu – once we have a second reviewer, we will start a new issue thread on this repository that will contain a reviewer checklist. We formally conduct the review there, but you can begin your assessment now. We have a documentation site where you can read about our Review criteria.

[fbidu]

@labarba just gave this paper a closer read, congrats on the work @eidheim!

I think this paper does show case a very valid educational tool. Despite being a pro dev for several years, I find React... Weird. While I'm not a JavaScript developer, react-simplified did take a bit of React's weirdness off. The examples described in the paper are well written and I think they are arranged nicely, with each one of them adding up a bit of complexity while dealing with real scenarios such as fetching things from a server.

if the work has been used in the classroom over some time, perhaps has been evaluated with learners, etc., there is scholarly effort not reflected in loc but that should be explained in the paper.

This is the first time I actually review things for JOSE so I'm a bit on the fence about the criteria on this. The paper does mention its classroom usage and even goes a bit into detail on how the classes that use react-simplified fit on the course's syllabus. If there's data available somewhere that would allow us to better gauge the before-and-after over some metric, it would be nice, but I find it hard coming up with some metric that actually reflects this. Number of students that completed the class successfully? Average grades? Percentage of students that ended up picking optional classes on web development over ? They all seem interesting metrics but they may be hard to get and may ended up not reflecting the impact of the library itself if other factors have changed.

All in all, I liked this paper and will take the library for a spin!

Cheers,

--Bidu

[csev]

I have done a second read of the article and appreciate the changes. There is much more detail on the benefit of the approach and the in-class application approach. I think it is a good submission.

-- Chuck

[labarba]

@whedon invite @willingc as editor

[whedon]

@willingc has been invited to edit this submission.

[labarba]

@willingc – I have invited you as editor for this submission, which has been pre-assessed with a scope query, and already has volunteers willing to review. Can you take it forward?

[labarba]

@whedon invite @lorenanicole as editor

[labarba]

@whedon assign @lorenanicole as editor

[whedon]

OK, the editor is @lorenanicole

[labarba]

@whedon remove @lorenanicole as editor

[whedon]

I'm sorry human, I don't understand that. You can see what commands I support by typing:

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[labarba]

@whedon assign me as editor

[whedon]

OK, the editor is @labarba

[labarba]

hi @eidheim — we have been unable to begin a formal review of your submission, starting with a handling editor. I have made a few attempts at this, but we lack members of the editorial board with a traditional computer science background. We have also lost people, and in the latest call for editors, we have no one in this field. I'm afraid we are unable to put your paper though review. I apologize for this, but our team is limited, and your submission is in an area we don't cover, at this time.