Motivation
In the context of my new job as a Full-Stack Developer, I wanted to refresh my React knowledge or learn something new. I was recommended the Udemy course React - The Complete Guide. Practical implementation of some course content is very important to me, so I wrote two small applications—one with React and one with JavaScript—to understand the differences. But first a bit of theory on React.
Origin of React
React was released by Facebook in 2013 and is a JavaScript library that aims to simplify the development of user interfaces. In the course mentioned above, I came up with my own application which I wrote first without React (i.e., purely with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) and then again with React.
“Pokedex” Light
The application fetches Pokémon from the PokéApi and displays them. From the API, I retrieve all necessary data such as the image, name, and ID in Pokedex format. By default, the first 20 Pokémon are displayed. With a click on the “Load More” button, the next 20 Pokémon can be fetched from the API.
Impressions
What Have I Learned
- The separation of presentation, behavior (functions), and data in React is very good and has reduced complexity.
- More complex applications seem to be much more maintainable with React.
- The early days of web development must have been really hard.