Getting Started with React

What is React?

React is a JavaScript library developed by Facebook for building user interfaces.
It focuses on building reusable components that make managing complex UIs simpler and more efficient.

React is widely used in web applications, from small projects to large-scale enterprise apps.

Why Learn React?

• One of the most popular JavaScript libraries.
• Backed by a huge community and companies like Meta.
• Reusable component-based architecture.
• Excellent performance with virtual DOM.
• Works with libraries and frameworks like Next.js for production-ready apps.

Key Features of React

• Component-Based – build encapsulated components that manage their own state.
• Declarative Syntax – describe UI and React updates it efficiently.
• Virtual DOM – improves performance by minimizing direct DOM manipulation.
• Unidirectional Data Flow – predictable data handling.
• Rich Ecosystem – supports routing, state management, and server rendering.

Getting Started with React

Follow these steps to set up React and create your first app.

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install node

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt update
sudo apt install nodejs npm

# Windows (winget)
winget install OpenJS.NodeJS

node -v
npm -v

npm create vite@latest my-app

cd my-app
npm install

npx create-react-app my-app
cd my-app
npm start

npm run dev

http://localhost:5173

function Hello() {
  return <h1>Hello, React!</h1>;
}

export default Hello;

import Hello from './Hello';

function App() {
  return (
    <div>
      <Hello />
    </div>
  );
}

export default App;

Hello, React!