book

What React Is and Why It Matters

by Eric Baer

August 2018

Intermediate to advanced

61 pages

1h 12m

English

O'Reilly Media, Inc.

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A Short ExampleReact Is a Library, Not a FrameworkComparing React to Other Frameworks and Libraries
Takeaways
Virtual DOMThe Web in the Age of jQuery (Circa 2006–2010)The Web in the Age of Backbone.js (Circa 2010–2014)The Web in the Age of React (Circa 2015–Current)Functional PatternsJavaScript’s OriginsOne-Way DataSimplicityBackbone.jsEmber.js and AngularJSTakeaways
Versatile Migration PathRuntime Performance by DefaultCode ReuseReduced Complexity from Collocated ResourcesFast Error Isolation and CorrectionEcosystem/CommunityStabilityStaying PowerTakeaways
Decision FatigueSteep Learning CurveBrowser SupportServer-Side RenderingOrganization and MaintenanceSSR PerformanceSharing and Distributing ComponentsStyles Are Not Portable (Enough)Redux Does Not Support “Fractal” ArchitecturesContext-Based Tools Make Components ImpureNo Sharable Build ConfigurationTakeaways
Write an Application for Each PlatformDevelop for Just One PlatformDevelop One “Hybrid” Application that Compiles to Multiple PlatformsWhat Is React Native?Takeaways
Is React a Templating Language?Is React Similar to Web Components?What Is the Difference Between the Virtual DOM and a Shadow DOM?How Can React Be Used with Other Frameworks?How Will React Affect SEO?When Should I Not Use React?Are React and React Native the Same Thing?
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Content preview from What React Is and Why It Matters

Chapter 8. What People Are Saying

By the numbers, React seems to be gaining a tremendous amount of momentum, but numbers don’t always tell the full story. The following are examples of how companies are reacting to this new tool.

Airbnb

React tends to make your code very easy to refactor and iterate on.

Leland Richardson, How Airbnb Uses React

Asana

Incorporating functional purity in every component...has allowed us to develop large parts of our application in React while maintaining simplicity and performance.

Eric Pelz, Designing Simpler React Components

Atlassian

The dev speed we’ve gained…proves that we can release new client features faster and with more confidence on this platform than on any native client.

Rich Manalang, Rebuilding HipChat with React.js

Facebook Ads

It was extremely difficult to change without causing some side effect or bug somewhere else in the application…When the team rebuilt it in React, they found that their rate of new bugs being introduced had gone through the floor.

Spencer Ahrens, The Changelog, episode 149

When a bug did come in, it was much easier to figure out what was going wrong and make a targeted fix.

Spencer Ahrens

Netflix

React has exceeded our requirements and enabled us to build a tremendous foundation on which to innovate the Netflix experience.

Jordanna Kwok, Netflix Likes React

NFL

We are big believers in React.

Richard Herrera, NFL + React

PayPal

We love React at PayPal.

Sam Selvanathan, Isomorphic React ...

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