5 Things You'll Love About React

This session is intended for developers searching for a front-end JavaScript framework they can fall in love with. We’ll look at five ways that React will delight you as a developer, and a few things you might not like.

You’ll leave this session inspired to build your next project with React.

This session is intended for developers searching for a front-end JavaScript framework they can fall in love with.

We’ll look at five ways that React will delight you as a developer. Among them:

• React apps are built with components. This is more than an architectural detail. It helps you identify and define the seams of your app, which improves maintainability.
• React testing is more intuitive than testing in any other JavaScript framework. The tooling for React testing is fantastic, and the tests are easy to write and read.
• JSX is a strange-looking combination of JavaScript and XML. It will shift your understanding of the “separation of concerns,” and empower you to write declarative UI code.

We’ll also cover a few things you might not love. Styling in React is controversial, and developers new to React are often overwhelmed by the decisions required to build an app.

But the pros outweigh the cons, and even things you initially dislike will grow on you. React is a fantastic developer experience.

You’ll leave this session inspired to build an app with React, and ready to migrate your existing apps.

My specialty is currently React development, and has been for the last few years. I still find things I love about it, and I’d love to share those things with an audience.

I have given this talk at KCDC 2019 in Kansas City. In that iteration, I spoke of 10 things you’ll love about React, but I have since pared down to 5 topics. This allows me to focus more deeply on the most interesting things about React.