Why opt React js for web app development?
Every JavaScript developer who has been working in software industry for a while knows how cumbersome it was to write the code components before the arrival of JavaScript frameworks like React, Angular, Vue and Node. That’s what Jordan Walke, a software engineer felt so he took inspiration from XHP (HTML component framework for PHP) and created React js framework in 2011). React js was first used for news feed in Facebook and later it was used on Instagram. React js was built for providing user experience equivalent to desktop apps with single page applications which are gorgeous and easy to make for developers.
React js has a small learning curve, the code can be easily written by an experienced JavaScript developer because of its simplified API and syntax. React js is lightning fast for web application development with which large amounts of data can be rendered in a very little time. It has only view component so the react js developer needs to provide their own model and controller. The frequent editing of posts on Instagram and changes in code can be easily done even when application is running as react js is based on java runtime environment.
Why the concept of virtual DOM was introduced?
The web applications that are being built to handle lists of data uses Data object model (DOM) when one record is deleted then all the entries needs to be updated in DOM which is even more expensive than loading js. To avoid this frequent DOM updating problem an innovative idea of virtual DOM was adopted. React js uses JSX element that gives the capabilities to combine CSS with js when any change is made in these files then jsx files are rendered as virtual DOM. This virtual DOM is then compared with last recorded DOM map to know which component is changed. After figuring it out only that component in real DOM is added or modified which reduces frequent real DOM interactions and speed up react based web applications.
All the above mentioned factors are responsible for growing popularity of react js web application development but the biggest reason is its performance that is achieved with simple yet effective approach of DOM. Now vue js is taking couple of steps ahead to reduce the development and asset rendering time which has lead vue js to become biggest competitor of react js. No matter who gets popular the developers and consumers are going to benefit from this war of frameworks.
