title: does react really need nodeJS on the frontend ENV?
body: <p>I am new in react. I want to start a small hello world example of my own.</p>
  <p>Most tutorials offer something like this:</p>
  <p>app.js</p>
  <pre><code>var React = require('react');
  var ReactDOM = require('react-dom');
  var reactElement = React.createElement('h1', { className: 'header' },
  'This is React');
  ReactDOM.render(reactElement, document.getElementById('react-
  application'));
  </code></pre>
  <p>index.html</p>
  <pre><code>&lt;!doctype html&gt;
  &lt;html lang=&quot;en&quot;&gt;
  &lt;head&gt;
      &lt;meta charset=&quot;utf-8&quot; /&gt;
      &lt;meta http-equiv=&quot;x-ua-compatible&quot; content=&quot;ie=edge, chrome=1&quot; /&gt;
      &lt;title&gt;Snapterest&lt;/title&gt;
      &lt;link rel=&quot;stylesheet&quot; href=&quot;https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/
      bootstrap/3.3.5/css/bootstrap.min.css&quot;&gt;
  &lt;/head&gt;
  &lt;body&gt;
      &lt;div id=&quot;react-application&quot;&gt;
          I am about to learn the essentials of React.js.
      &lt;/div&gt;
      &lt;script src=&quot;./app.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;
  &lt;/body&gt;
  &lt;/html&gt;
  </code></pre>
  <p>The problem is that <em>that</em> example requires nodeJS (for the require() part) and npm install and npm start.. all of that.</p>
  <p>I can do it differently without nodeJS like this</p>
  <p>app.js</p>
  <pre><code>var reactElement = React.createElement('h1', { className: 'header' },
  'This is React');
  ReactDOM.render(reactElement, document.getElementById('react-application'));
  </code></pre>
  <p>index.html</p>
  <pre><code>&lt;!doctype html&gt;
  &lt;html lang=&quot;en&quot;&gt;
  &lt;head&gt;
      &lt;meta charset=&quot;utf-8&quot; /&gt;
      &lt;meta http-equiv=&quot;x-ua-compatible&quot; content=&quot;ie=edge, chrome=1&quot; /&gt;
      &lt;title&gt;Snapterest&lt;/title&gt;
   
       &lt;script src=&quot; /react-0.14.8.min.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;
   &lt;script src=&quot; /react-dom-0.14.8.min.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;
  
  
  &lt;/head&gt;
  &lt;body&gt;
      &lt;div id=&quot;react-application&quot;&gt;
       dsf
      &lt;/div&gt;
      &lt;script src=&quot;./app.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;
  &lt;/body&gt;
  &lt;/html&gt;
  </code></pre>
  <p>in this example I am using cdn in order to import the dependencies of react that nodejs should import in the npm install phase. question is - which is better? could I use just cdn and not use nodejs entirely? is it more correct to have nodejs and npm modules (or bower..) to have the react stuff?</p>
  <p>Thanks</p>