This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
How to Use This Book
This is not a reference book. Its goal is to get you started with React development so you can get the most out of the reference and recipe books available. It is based on our class at Big Nerd Ranch and, as such, is meant for you to work through in succession.
That is how students in our classes work through these materials. But they also benefit from having the right environment, which includes a group of motivated peers and an instructor to answer questions.
As a reader, you want your environment to be similar. Try these ideas:
Start a reading group with your friends or coworkers.
Arrange blocks of focused time to work on chapters.
Participate in the forum for this book at forums.bignerdranch.com, where you can discuss the book and find errata and solutions.
Find someone who knows React to help you out.
Typographical conventions
To make this book easier to read, certain items appear in certain fonts. Variables, constants, and types appear in a fixed-width font. Function and method names appear in a bold fixed-width font.
All code listings are in a fixed-width font. Code that you need to type in is always bold. Code that should be deleted is struck through. For example, in the following change, you are deleting the title React App and adding the title Ottergram.
<head>
...
<title>React App</title>
<title>Ottergram</title>
</head>
Using an eBook
If you are reading this book on an eReader, we want to point out that reading the code may be tricky at times. Longer lines of code may wrap to a second line, depending on your selected font size.
The longest lines of code in this book are 86 monospace characters, like this one.
<h1>React Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide, Loren Klingman and Ashley Parker</h1>
You can play with your eReader’s settings to find the best for viewing long code lines.
If you are reading on an iPad with iBooks, we recommend you go to the Settings app, select iBooks, and set Full Justification OFF and Auto-hyphenation OFF.
When you get to the point where you are actually typing in code, we suggest opening the book on your PC or Mac in Adobe Digital Editions. (Adobe Digital Editions is a free eReader application you can download from adobe.com/products/digitaleditions.) Make the application window large enough so that you can see the code with no wrapping lines. You will also be able to see the figures in full detail.