React: Building Modern Web Applications

JavaScript as a Domain-specific Language

One widespread practice in templating systems is to provide a DSL for templating. In the usual process, such as an underscore on the frontend (http://underscorejs.org) or Django templating on the backend (http://djangoproject.com), there is a carefully chosen but deliberately underpowered templating language provided. In Django, for instance, the power is deliberately limited so that templating can be handed over to untrusted designers, and there is nothing the designers can do that will compromise anything that one would prefer not to be compromised.

This is perhaps an attractive feature, but it speaks of a limited templating language. If templating needs something more powerful, they are in a bind until ...