React js

What is JavaScript & its library

JavaScript is a text-based programming language, it is used both on the client-side and server-side which allows you to make interactive web pages. Where HTML is a language that gives structure & CSS gives style to web pages, HTML is just like a human body structure(skeleton), CSS is like skin and muscles of a human & JavaScript is just like consciousness(life) of human.

Developers often use the terms “library”, It is a reusable code written by someone else. Their purpose is to help you solve common problems in easier ways.

Some JavaScript library

There are many libraries out there, some of them are mentioned below, you definitely heard at least one of them. These are

1. React.js

React is an open-source front-end JavaScript library for building user interfaces or UI components. It is maintained by Facebook and a community of individual developers and companies. React can be used as a base in the development of single-page or mobile applications.

2. D3.js

D3.js is a JavaScript library for producing dynamic, interactive data visualizations in web browsers. It makes use of Scalable Vector Graphics, HTML5, and Cascading Style Sheets standards. It is the successor to the earlier Protovis framework.

3. Vue.js

Vue.js is an open-source model–view–viewmodel front end JavaScript framework for building user interfaces and single-page applications. It was created by Evan You, and is maintained by him and the rest of the active core team members.

4. jQuery

jQuery is a JavaScript library designed to simplify HTML DOM tree traversal and manipulation, as well as event handling, CSS animation, and Ajax. It is free, open-source software using the permissive MIT License. As of May 2019, jQuery is used by 73% of the 10 million most popular websites.

5. Three.js

Three.js is a cross-browser JavaScript library and application programming interface used to create and display animated 3D computer graphics in a web browser using WebGL.

Lets back to React.js

In simple words, it is a JavaScript library for building user interfaces. In this definition, we see two words: javascript library and user interface. Let’s understand what is the meaning of these terms.

The library is a pre-written code that is efficient, complex, composed, and readily available. Thus, it makes our life easy, and we can easily use the code written by someone else.

Let’s say we want to calculate the cosine value of 20. Rather than worrying about how this library has been written, we simply use the math library. For example, Math.cos(20).

User Interface refers to what the user sees upfront. React JS is a very powerful tool that enables efficient front-end development by breaking up the page into several building blocks known as components.

Why should we choose react.js?

We can move to the next step of the understanding of what React JS is & understand why we use it.

React is a powerful and very popular tool in front-end development, It is more popular than its competitors such as Vue and Angular. One of the main reasons for its popularity is that React is a light weighted Library than Angular but Vue is more light weighted than React, Vue is now becoming popular. Thus, the control over the flow of the application is more when compared to Angular, which is a framework.

We can easily reuse the components which help in the optimization. The learning curve of React is very easy as compared to Angular and Vue. React is trusted by some of the leading companies like Facebook, Netflix, PayPal, Tesla, and more. We see the real benefits of React when we build a single page application. There are more jobs in the market for React developers compared to Angular and Vue?