React in Action

Preface

When I first started learning about and using React, the JavaScript community was just beginning to settle down from a period of rapid innovation and disruption (read: turbulence). React was gaining in popularity, but the JavaScript community still seemed like the Wild West in many ways. I was excited about React as a technology because it showed real promise. The mental model seemed solid, components made building UIs easier, the API was flexible and expressive, and the whole project seemed like it was “just right.” Postulations about its API surface, usability, and theoretical underpinnings aside, there was also the fact that it seemed really cool to me and I enjoyed working with it.

Since then, quite a bit has changed—and at the ...