This document provides an overview of React, detailing its history from its creation at Facebook in 2011 to its open sourcing in 2013, and emphasizes its guiding principles of being declarative and component-based. It explains how React uses a virtual DOM for efficient updates by comparing representations of the application states and batching changes for rendering. Additionally, it clarifies what React is not, indicating that it functions as a library rather than a framework and does not manage data fetching or routing.
Brief History ofReact
2011: Created internally at FB.
2012: Instagram acquired by FB.
Begins re-write of their front-end.
2013: Open sourced at JSConf.
What React Isn’t
•Library, not a framework
• Doesn’t tell you how to fetch data.
• Doesn’t tell you how to push state changes
back to the server.
• Doesn’t help you route from a url to a specific
component
• Doesn’t provide you tooling for packaging or
deploying your application.