brunch
Missing comparison with Webpack
It's easy to kick the old dog like Grunt or Gulp. But I wonder how Brunch compares with something really powerful like Webpack. It was not even mentioned in the Guide. And Webpack is much more popular and it is used by almost every React developer. It has also hot reload modules replacement. http://gaearon.github.io/react-hot-loader/ Is it also possible for Brunch?
Hot reload is the reason people suffer through webpack config. It's a requirement for performant and secure modern web apps. Otherwise you are stuck with sending your entire app, along with admin interfaces, on the landing page.
I haven't been able to get React to work with Brunch yet, but I think it's fair to say it's because while I'm not new to node or javascript, I'm new to node build tools and the, how shall I say, seething mass of tooling that has grown around it. Getting webpack and react hot-loader doesn't look easy to setup either (http://gaearon.github.io/react-hot-loader/getstarted/) but it is nice that components maintain state between updates. I'll have to give it a whirl while my Brunch inquiries wait for response.
Looks like something is in the works (with caveats): https://github.com/brunch/hmr-brunch
