DEV Community

Chloe
Chloe

Posted on

Learning React

I have some experience with Vue and would like to learn some React to compare them and generally broaden my understanding. I have attempted to go their docs, but it was a struggle I went through the tutorial and learnt very little from it. It uses classes to extend component, but most tutorials I've read say to use function components (which make more sense to me) so why use the extend component method? I don't understand why you would if you have the option to use function components unless of course you're working with older versions of React.

I'm currently working on a personal project with Gatsby I found the docs much clearer and easier to understand, but I figured its a good idea to have at least a basic understanding of React. There are so many posts/tutorials out there it's all bit overwhelming anyone have any good resources to start with the basics?

Top comments (4)

Collapse
 
johnnyjamesnavarro profile image
Johnny Navarro

Well, React is moving from class-based components to functional components, any resource you might find using classes is probably outdated, you are encouraged to work with functional components and the React "hooks".
Now, regarding a resource for the basics, might sound kinda stupid but my first interaction with React was watching a "Crash Course" in Youtube. Traversy Media has one I found useful to understand everything first (youtu.be/XuFDcZABiDQ). On the other hand, if you are looking for an actual entire course, I would recommend Colt Steele's or Maximilian Schwarzmüller's React courses on Udemy, both are great. Good luck!

Collapse
 
cguttweb profile image
Chloe

Thanks for the reply. Good to know functional components are the way to go it makes more sense to me. I should have thought of Traversy Media (fyi your link seems to a different video and not the crash course) I've watched his Vue crash course and have taken one of his JS courses.

Collapse
 
lbeul profile image
Louis

for a quick entry I can recommend either FullStackOpen's section on React or The Beginner's Guide to React by Kent C. Dodds on egghead.io :)

Collapse
 
johnnyjamesnavarro profile image
Johnny Navarro

Oh yeah, I didn't link the actual crash course because I believe he used class-based components there. The other one I linked does use functional components and hooks.