Files
react/docs/why-react.html
T
Paul O’Shannessy e82227b698 Updated to latest changes
7c4c0cd [docs] Remove commented out ghbtns
92102ac Add info about dev vs. prod builds
277cbf0 [docs] Add timezone to _config
b0b7717 Remove stray "117", combine lines in polyfill docs
8d63dad Rewrite Older Browsers polyfill section for clarity.
edd61ed Fix "Uncontrolled Components" documentation
d99cafa Fix typo in docs.
190f373 Update docs to mention that you need both es5-shim.js and
es5-sham.js to use React with IE8.
1873e1d Add dataType to all $.ajax calls for consistency
27ac8a3 Fix #845, Trivial year change
97f2441 Fix #874: Edit thinking-in-react
ce72e84 Document return value of unmountComponentAtNode
52ad24f Remove two more react.min.js references
7efdb43 Don't use the min build in getting started guide
51e7a6b Fix URL in displayName description
f44e8cc Add charCode/keyCode/which to key event docs
2014-01-15 11:42:32 -08:00

410 lines
13 KiB
HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>
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<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge,chrome=1">
<title>React | Why React?</title>
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<meta property="og:description" content="A JavaScript library for building user interfaces" />
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<div class="container">
<div class="nav-main">
<div class="wrap">
<a class="nav-home" href="/react/index.html">
<img class="nav-logo" alt="" src="/react/img/logo_small.png" width="38" height="38">
React
</a>
<ul class="nav-site">
<li><a href="/react/docs/getting-started.html" class="active">docs</a></li>
<li><a href="/react/support.html">support</a></li>
<li><a href="/react/downloads.html">download</a></li>
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<section class="content wrap documentationContent">
<div class="nav-docs">
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<div class="nav-docs-section">
<h3>Quick Start</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="/react/docs/getting-started.html">
Getting Started
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<a href="/react/docs/tutorial.html">
Tutorial
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Videos
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<div class="nav-docs-section">
<h3>Guides</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="/react/docs/why-react.html" class="active">
Why React?
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/react/docs/displaying-data.html">
Displaying Data
</a>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="/react/docs/jsx-in-depth.html">
JSX in Depth
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/react/docs/jsx-gotchas.html">
JSX Gotchas
</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/react/docs/interactivity-and-dynamic-uis.html">
Interactivity and Dynamic UIs
</a>
</li>
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<a href="/react/docs/multiple-components.html">
Multiple Components
</a>
</li>
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<a href="/react/docs/reusable-components.html">
Reusable Components
</a>
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<a href="/react/docs/forms.html">
Forms
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<a href="/react/docs/working-with-the-browser.html">
Working With the Browser
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<ul>
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<a href="/react/docs/more-about-refs.html">
More About Refs
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</ul>
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<a href="/react/docs/tooling-integration.html">
Tooling Integration
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<a href="/react/docs/addons.html">
Add-Ons
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<ul>
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<a href="/react/docs/animation.html">
Animation
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<a href="/react/docs/two-way-binding-helpers.html">
Two-Way Binding Helpers
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<a href="/react/docs/class-name-manipulation.html">
Class Name Manipulation
</a>
</li>
</ul>
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<a href="/react/docs/examples.html">
Examples
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</ul>
</div>
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<h3>Reference</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="/react/docs/top-level-api.html">
Top-Level API
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/react/docs/component-api.html">
Component API
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/react/docs/component-specs.html">
Component Specs and Lifecycle
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/react/docs/tags-and-attributes.html">
Supported Tags and Attributes
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/react/docs/events.html">
Event System
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/react/docs/dom-differences.html">
DOM Differences
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/react/docs/special-non-dom-attributes.html">
Special Non-DOM attributes
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/react/docs/reconciliation.html">
Reconciliation
</a>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
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<div class="nav-docs-section">
<h3>Tips</h3>
<ul>
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<a href="/react/tips/introduction.html">Introduction</a>
</li>
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<a href="/react/tips/inline-styles.html">Inline Styles</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/react/tips/if-else-in-JSX.html">If-Else in JSX</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/react/tips/self-closing-tag.html">Self-Closing Tag</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/react/tips/maximum-number-of-jsx-root-nodes.html">Maximum Number of JSX Root Nodes</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/react/tips/style-props-value-px.html">Shorthand for Specifying Pixel Values in style props</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/react/tips/children-props-type.html">Type of the Children props</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/react/tips/controlled-input-null-value.html">Value of null for Controlled Input</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/react/tips/componentWillReceiveProps-not-triggered-after-mounting.html">componentWillReceiveProps Not Triggered After Mounting</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/react/tips/props-in-getInitialState-as-anti-pattern.html">Props in getInitialState Is an Anti-Pattern</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/react/tips/dom-event-listeners.html">DOM Event Listeners in a Component</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/react/tips/initial-ajax.html">Load Initial Data via AJAX</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/react/tips/false-in-jsx.html">False in JSX</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/react/tips/communicate-between-components.html">Communicate Between Components</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/react/tips/expose-component-functions.html">Expose Component Functions</a>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div class="inner-content">
<h1>Why React?</h1>
<div class="subHeader"></div>
<p>React is a JavaScript library for creating user interfaces by Facebook and Instagram. Many people choose to think of React as the <strong>V</strong> in <strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model%E2%80%93view%E2%80%93controller">MVC</a></strong>.</p>
<p>We built React to solve one problem: <strong>building large applications with data that changes over time</strong>. To do this, React uses two main ideas.</p>
<h3><a class="anchor" name="simple"></a>Simple <a class="hash-link" href="#simple">#</a></h3>
<p>Simply express how your app should look at any given point in time, and React will automatically manage all UI updates when your underlying data changes.</p>
<h3><a class="anchor" name="declarative"></a>Declarative <a class="hash-link" href="#declarative">#</a></h3>
<p>When the data changes, React conceptually hits the &quot;refresh&quot; button, and knows to only update the changed parts.</p>
<h2><a class="anchor" name="build-composable-components"></a>Build Composable Components <a class="hash-link" href="#build-composable-components">#</a></h2>
<p>React is all about building reusable components. In fact, with React the <em>only</em> thing you do is build components. Since they&#39;re so encapsulated, components make code reuse, testing, and separation of concerns easy.</p>
<h2><a class="anchor" name="give-it-five-minutes"></a>Give It Five Minutes <a class="hash-link" href="#give-it-five-minutes">#</a></h2>
<p>React challenges a lot of conventional wisdom, and at first glance some of the ideas may seem crazy. <a href="http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3124-give-it-five-minutes">Give it five minutes</a> while reading this guide; those crazy ideas have worked for building thousands of components both inside and outside of Facebook and Instagram.</p>
<h2><a class="anchor" name="learn-more"></a>Learn More <a class="hash-link" href="#learn-more">#</a></h2>
<p>You can learn more about our motivations behind building React in <a href="http://facebook.github.io/react/blog/2013/06/05/why-react.html">this blog post</a>.</p>
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