Potentially confusing definition of "Higher-order component" in v1 docs

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Hi @oliviertassinari,

Thank you for writing this library! It’s definitely one of my favorite sources for learning how to write React components.

Minor question - I’m reading the CSS-in-JS section of the v1 docs, and correct me if I’m wrong, I think I see 2 definitions of “higher-order component”…

Definition 1

We use the withStyles higher-order component to inject an array of styles…

Definition 2

API withStyles(styles, [options]) => Higher-order Component

If I understood this correctly, the docs are saying that withStyles is a HOC that returns a HOC?

I think the React docs on HOCs seem to prefer the 1st definition; preferring instead to call the returned object an EnhancedComponent.

I’m not too worried about this personally, but I think this part of the docs may be confusing for those unfamiliar with the HOC term.

<aside>I don’t personally resonate with the React official definition… I think it’s confusing that React Components can be rendered but Higher-order Components can’t; but this definition seems to be standard now so I’ve gotten used to it.</aside>

Thoughts?

[oliviertassinari]

Perhaps I’m confused, but to me withStyles is the HOC.

@rosskevin Not if we refer to other libraries. Let’s take the recompose documentation: https://github.com/acdlite/recompose/blob/master/docs/API.md.

a higher-order component (HOC) refers to a function that accepts a single React component and returns a new React component.

Most Recompose helpers are functions that return higher-order components:

I think that keeping the distinction will help people better understanding the concepts.

[pajaydev]

Can I make a PR?? @oliviertassinari.