Getting Started with React Native

Chapter 2. Understanding React Native Fundamentals

You might not be familiar with how React for Web works, so we are going to cover the fundamentals in this chapter. We will also explain the core principles of how React for Web works under the hood. Once you have a solid understanding of the basics, we will dive into how React for Web works and the subtle differences between mobile and web. By the end of this chapter, you will have the necessary skills to start building the example application.

In this chapter we will cover the following topics:

• The Virtual DOM
• Introducing components and JSX
• Writing our first component
• Props and state of components

The Virtual DOM

Do you know how to write a JavaScript function? If you do, that's great! You're well on ...