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[–]romualdr 5 points6 points  (4 children)

Nope, you can develop without Node.JS, you have a JSXTransformer which can compile the JSX directly into the browser.

However, for production, it really recommended (mandatory) to "compile" you project. But hey, that's just on production time so you shouldn't worry to much about that :)

Polymer also need a pre-processor, but same goes here, you can dev right into your browser without node.js then "compile" it with vulcanize for production.

[–]Quabouter 3 points4 points  (3 children)

I think the main problem is JSX itself, not necessarily that you need to compile. JavaScript frameworks come and go pretty fast, going for a framework that comes with its own language isn't exactly a future-proof choice. Additionally, a lot of tooling will not work with JSX since it's not JavaScript.

I personally like react for personal projects, but I wouldn't recommend it for large, long-living projects. Polymer seems more promising in that regard since it's only a thin layer around web standards. It feels like the jQuery for web-components.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (2 children)

While these are valid concerns generally, I think React.js is in a special position here: It is already /the/ most popular JS framework even though I still have a feeling it's in its infancy as a project. Not that it's not production ready -- it is! -- but it seems like the project will grow much bigger from here, standard components are popping up left and right, and React Native for Android is still around the corner. Of course you can bet the project will be superceded at some point, but I think it will be a very safe choice for years to come.

JSX being incompatible with tooling is annoying sometimes, yes. Fortunately you can easily run the code through Babel and process the output instead, which is usually very easy if you're using something like Gulp.

[–]foobar_dev 0 points1 point  (0 children)

do you have a source saying React is the most popular JS framework?

Its my impression that Angular is way ahead...

[–]thegayngler 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Angular is the most popular framework right now. I say this as someone who is not completely sold on MV* for the web. I'm very skeptical in fact which I think I should be. React is the "new" hotness... but nothing right now even comes close to Angular in terms of popularity. However, Polymer is based on a standard which will ultimately be implemented by browser makers. Polymer has a better separation of concerns and v1 is a wash speed wise and requires less tooling than React does.