Created by Facebook, ReactJS has been quick to storm onto the JavaScript stage. But is it really worth picking up, especially over more established options like Ember or Angular? Well, here’s five great reasons to learn React.
1. If you want to build high performance JS mobile apps
If you’re a JavaScript developer, there are a bunch of options to choose from if you find yourself wanting to develop for mobile. Cordova, Ionic and more all allow you to use your JavaScript coding skills to build apps for Android and iOS. But React Native – React’s spin off platform for mobile dev – is very different. Rather than running a JavaScript powered app in your mobile web browser, React Native compiles to the native code of the respective mobile OS. What does this mean? It means you get to develop entirely with JavaScript without passing on any performance compromise to your users. React Native apps run as swift and seamlessly as those built using native tools like XCode.
2. If your web app regularly changes state
If your single-page web app needs to react regularly to state changes, you’ll want to seriously consider React (the clue is in the name). React is built on the idea of minimizing DOM operations – they’re expensive, and the least you have the better. Instead, React gives you a virtual DOM to render too instead of the actual DOM. This allows the minimum number of DOM operations you need to achieve the new desired state. With React, you can often stop worrying about DOM performance altogether. It’s simple to re-render an entire page all the time as soon as your state changes. This means your code is smaller, sleeker, and simpler – and simpler code is bug free code.
3. If you want to easily reuse your code
One of React’s biggest features are container components. What are those? The idea is simple – a container does the data fetching, and then renders it into a corresponding sub-component that shares the same name. This means that you separate your data fetching from your rendering concerns entirely – making your React code much, much more reusable in different projects.
4. If you like control over your stack
It’s a common refrain among those asked to compare React to other JavaScript Frameworks like Angular – React’s not a framework! It’s a library. What does this mean? It means you can have complete control over your stack. Don’t like a bit of React? You can always swap in from another JavaScript library and run things your way.
5. If you want to be in on the ground floor of the next big thing
There are thousands of experienced Angular developers, many of whom are progressing to learn Angular 2. In contrast, React is young, scrappy, and hungry – and you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone with more than a year or so’s experience using it. Despite that, employer demand is rising fast. If you’re looking to stand out from the crowd, React skills are an excellent thing to have on your resume.
Commit to building your next development project with React. Or maybe Angular. Whatever you decide, pick up some of our very best content from 7th to 13th November 2016 here.