Ask HN: What has been the evolution around best practices for React development?

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I did some development in React more than 6 years ago. Now I am going to take over React again and I am lost looking at what happened in the meantime. Is there any source where I can find the history of its evolution and in particular what are the current best practices ?

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I think Adrian Bogden has some pretty great content if you already understand React and he gets into some advanced concepts within hooks which React has shifted to over classes. https://www.youtube.com/@bogdanadrian9725/videos

React docs: Should I use Hooks, classes, or a mix of both? When you’re ready, we’d encourage you to start trying Hooks in new components you write. https://legacy.reactjs.org/docs/hooks-faq.html#should-i-use-...

Note that that FAQ is from the "Legacy" docs site, and was written right after hooks were announced in 2018.

The current docs site at https://react.dev teaches only hooks + function components as the standard approach.

These historical overview posts are pretty good:

- https://frontendmastery.com/posts/the-evolution-of-react-pat...

- https://frontendmastery.com/posts/rethinking-react-best-prac...

- https://frontendmastery.com/posts/the-new-wave-of-react-stat...

(Not the author, but read them and I enjoy the content).

I'd also recommend going through the new React docs site for a refresher:

- https://react.dev

and reviewing a couple of the articles I've done around how React works:

- https://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2020/05/blogged-answers-a-...

- https://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2021/01/context-redux-diff...

I also did a post + talk a couple years ago on the migration from HOCs to hooks:

- https://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2019/07/blogged-answers-th...

- https://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2019/09/presentation-hooks...

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