Why would you write an action creator that performs dispatch? about redux-thunk

[dminkovsky]

What I'm trying to say is that I find the Redux docs frustrating because there is a plethora of totally unnecessary symbol names littered all over the examples:

function makeASandwich(forPerson, secretSauce) {
  return {
    type: 'MAKE_SANDWICH',
    forPerson,
    secretSauce
  };
}

function apologize(fromPerson, toPerson, error) {
  return {
    type: 'APOLOGIZE',
    fromPerson,
    toPerson,
    error
  };
}

function withdrawMoney(amount) {
  return {
    type: 'WITHDRAW',
    amount
  };
}

introduces makeASandwich, apologize and withdrawMoney. The more symbol names you make, the more your reader has to keep track of them in your example. And all for this attempt to establish the concept of "action creator" for something that is really just a "helper function"—a thing that all programmers use all the time.

[dminkovsky]

"For example, redux-thunk lets the action creators invert control by dispatching functions." 😳

[gaearon]

Please send a PR to the docs if you see a better way to phrase or explain something. ;-)

[dminkovsky]

Okay :): https://github.com/rackt/redux/pull/745/commits

I mean, if I could, I would cut out half of the docs. I mean, the advanced middleware documentation goes through a 7-step motivational exercise? I would guess almost everyone reading Redux docs knows about middleware, either via Express or via Django. Ironically, I would further guess that terms like "monkeypatching" are far less common knowledge among readers, given that the term originates in the Ruby community!

AND THEN—you go to to applyMiddleware "API docs" only to be greeted by an enormous redux-thunk example, with basic logging buried at the end (my pull request fixes this).

If it was up to me, I would remove that thunk example for the applyMiddleware docs altogether. That's not what API documentation is all about.

[gaearon]

@dminkovsky

The docs were written over a period of one and a half months, and this is the reason for most inconsistencies. For example, Async Actions section was the last to be added. Because there weren't any other docs on async actions back then (at the very beginning) I had to add some examples to applyMiddleware as last resort.

I'm happy to see an issue discussing your plan to cutting duplications in docs.

[dminkovsky]

Oh I get I can imagine how such a base of documentation has emerged. I don't mean to be critical of the docs in that regard.

I'll open the ticket there.

Thank you.

[gaearon]

Thanks! Yes, it's concerning me too, but I'm busy with other stuff now so I can really appreciate somebody taking over this and getting docs into a less wordy / more consistent shape.