Describing how React works in computer science language
The aim of this post is to translate React domain specifics into computer science.
Reading through the new official React docs is a great experience. Every term is described in a clear and meaningful way. Many examples teach new ways to use the library.
The direction of criticism is that of the new world the docs creates by renaming old abstractions from computer science we all know and understand well enough. And hinder the underlying mechanism of those. Creating a separation between being a developer, someone with a CS degree and versus a React developer with React specific knowledge. Having to learn a new way of thinking (thinking in react) and the need to hire people as purely a frontend developer specialized in React.
A React world to computer science world translation would look like the following:
- Writing a custom React Component — writing a function
- (In other contexts)React Component — an HTML tag
- Component props— function parameters
- Rendering — calling a function or more
- State — a variable
How is that supposed to help us? Understanding the connection can free a developer from the burden of becoming a React developer, instead we can use the well known ideas and tool sets we all know from the times we learned programming basics.
Do you think being full stack with this mindset is still a viable option? The comment section is down below!