Consider using Preact for Gutenberg rendering

[adamsilverstein]

Preact is a minimal, MIT license and largely compatible with the React API. It philosophy seems to align well with that of WordPress, we should consider using it in light of recent licensing decisions.

note: this is a WIP and doesn't actually work yet :)

[youknowriad]

see https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/tree/try/preact

[itzikbenh]

Do you have any clue if Preact is using the React Virtual DOM in some way? If so then this still might bound Preact users to the React patent clause in case FB holds patents on the Virtual Dom.

Either way, due to mainly Laravel there's a big PHP community behind Vue and I think that would be the wise choice. We should think long term, a couple of weeks here or there won't make a difference.

[youknowriad]

Do you have any clue if Preact is using the React Virtual DOM in some way?

I'm pretty confident with the preact code source and it does not use anything from React. It diffs DOM against virtual elements, while React's virtual dom is diffing virtual elements together (same thing for Vue.JS) aside its outside API. So I'd argue that Vue is more bound to any React's patent than preact.

[itzikbenh]

So I'd argue that Vue is more bound to any React's patent than preact

I see. I still would go with Vue. On the worst case Vue will have to change a bit to avoid patent problems, if there are any.
Also, Vue has more tooling and much bigger community. That itself should be a good enough reason to choose it.

[tyaakow]

Vue.JS has superb documentation, it is mature, it has mature ecosystem built around it, very gentle learning curve, you reach productivity very fast, license is friendly, and benchmarks are in its favor

[ntwb]

This is a PR switching from React to Preact, discussing the merits of Vue vs Preact is out of scope

Fragmenting discussions in multiple places is not helpful for the team or the contributors to previous and existing ongoing discussions, please, and thank you 😄

Discussion should continue in public on the the make / core P2:
• https://make.wordpress.org/core/2017/05/24/javascript-chat-summary-for-may-23rd/
• https://make.wordpress.org/core/2017/05/31/javascript-chat-summary-for-may-30th/

[adamsilverstein]

see https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/tree/try/preact

@youknowriad Ah, thanks for pointing that out, I did try searching for similar work before opening the PR. Glad to see work already happening exploring the option, I'll check out the branch and close my PR :)

Closing in favor of #2734