The React name and logo—so sleek, so vibrant—have an interesting story that blends creativity with a touch of scientific inspiration! React, the popular JavaScript library for building user interfaces, is celebrated for its simple yet powerful design. But have you ever wondered about the glowing atomic symbol in its logo? Or the story behind its name?🧐
It all began in 2013 when React was created by Jordan Walke and his team at Facebook. The goal was to make UI development easier and more efficient, especially as web applications became increasingly complex. The logo and name, however, wasn't just a random thing. It was crafted to symbolize the core of React itself.🚀
At that time, Facebook's front-end team was developing a sophisticated UI, namely Bolt.js🔩, a client-side MVC framework. This framework integrated various JavaScript tools to manage the intricate interactions required for features like the Facebook timeline, chat, news feed, and other advanced applications.
This was around the time when Facebook acquired Instagram. Jordan Walke, who was working on Ads, came up with an interesting idea to transform Bolt by making it more functional—removing the MVC architecture and introducing the concept of re-rendering. Initially named FBolt ⚙️ (Functional Bolt), it later evolved with the addition of JSX syntax and state management based on the Flux architecture, and was renamed React. The new name reflected the library’s philosophy: breaking down complexity into clean and reusable smaller units.
The night before making it open source, a designer named Michael, who was working at Instagram, designed the iconic React logo. The design resembles an atom, and if you look closely at the empty cutout in the center of the logo, you'll see a top view of a bolt.
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