Well yesterday I took an example (simple) react app and started adding in Redux to handle application state. I was following the examples in the book (Pro React 16) and it went pretty well. There is a lot of boilerplate code though. It's interesting that redux recommends using the redux toolkit which helps eliminate a lot of the boiler plate code. Again I find myself at a crossroads. Learn the old way first and then go to the latest recommendations or just plow ahead and do it using the latest recommendations. I think I'll complete the app as done in the book and then see how it differs and convert using toolkit if necessary.

Today I decided to start chronicling my adventures learning React. I've been at it for about a month or more and my learning is taking longer then I thought it would. In my defense I am also really learning javascript ES6/ES7, so it has slowed my progress a little. It seems to me React is a moving target, meaning changes to the react library come quite often and can have a significant effect on learning and even structuring code. I bought a book, "Pro React 16", and have also been taking a class on Udemy, "React - The complete guide". Both are excellent but I have struggled with both at times. I tend to read a book in a linear fashion, and by the time I got to the 5th chapter I was lost. The Udemy course has been a big help on getting me up to speed on React but has too many distractions like coding CSS and covering the old way of how to do things with the promise of getting to the new way later. I now find myself going back and forth between the book and the course and things are beginning to fall into place. My goal is to write an application, using the MERN stack and publish it to Heroku. Bye for now!