The Terminal

It's a bit ironic, but in order to be productive as a React developer, you need to be comfortable using the terminal.

I say that it's ironic because React is a tool used for building graphical user interfaces, and yet most React-related development tasks happen through a text-based command-line interface!

For example, in order to work on a React application on your computer, you'll need to run a local development server. This is typically done by executing the following terminal command:

npm run dev

Frustratingly, most tutorials and documentation assume that you're already proficient with the terminal. Unless you have a Computer Science background, or started using a computer in the 80s, this is a very poor assumption! And it can be very discouraging for beginners.

It takes years of practice to become a terminal guru, but that's not really necessary. Our goal is to learn just enough for us to "unblock" ourselves so that we can build React applications! This is a much more modest goal.

In the lessons that follow, we'll look at the most-critical fundamentals, the need-to-know stuff. I'll also share some of my favourite tips and tricks, the stuff I wish someone had shown me when I was getting started with the terminal.