React JS is an open-source front-end JavaScript library to build the user interface.
It is maintained by Facebook and used by many companies today for UI
development. It helps in building a user-friendly single page application for web
and mobile apps. It is easy to use as most of the things done in using the
Javascript.
Let’s have a quick recap of JS history:
The current version of React.JS is V16.8.6 (March 2019).
Initial Release to the Public (V0.3.0) was in July 2013.
React.JS was first used in 2011 for Facebook’s Newsfeed feature.
Facebook Software Engineer, Jordan Walke, created it.
The create-react-app version 2.0 package was released in October 2018.
Create-react-app version 2.0 supports Babel 7, webpack 4, and Jest23.
What is JSX?
1. JSX stands for JavaScript XML.
2. JSX allows us to write HTML in React.
3. JSX makes it easier to write and add HTML to React.
4. JSX is an extension to JavaScript. It is not mandatory to use JSX in react, it is one of the good features and easy to use.
The components are like pure JavaScript functions that help in making
the code easy by splitting the logic into reusable independent code. We can use components as functions and components as classes. Components also have a state, props which makes life easy. Inside a class, the state of each of the props is maintained.
Virtual DOM: React creates a virtual Dom.
Javascript Expressions: JS expressions can be used in the jsx files using curly brackets, for example {}.
Let’s learn about the benefits of using React JS:
React JS uses virtual Dom that makes use of in-memory data-structure
cache and only the final changes are updated in browsers, Dom. This makes
the app faster.
You can create components of your choice by using the react component
feature. The components can be reused and also helpful in code
maintenance.
React Js is an open-source JavaScript library, so it is easy to start with.
React JS has become very popular in a short span and maintained by
Facebook and Instagram. It is used by many famous companies like Apple,
Netflix, etc.
Facebook maintains React JS, the library, so it is well maintained and kept
updated.
React JS can be used to develop rich UI for both desktop and mobile apps.
Easy to debug and test as most of the coding is done in JavaScript rather
than on Html.
Disadvantages of React JS:
There are also some drawbacks of using React JS:
Most of the code is written in JSX, i.e., Html and CSS are part of JavaScript, it can be quite confusing as most other frameworks prefer keeping Html
separate from the JavaScript code.
The file size of React JS is large.
Conclusion:
React JS has come at a good time helping the developers to build highly engaging web apps and user interfaces within a quick time. It allows you to break down the components and create a single page application with less coding.
