Everyone knows that Web Components are the future, right? Or maybe you think that a well-written Angular directive has everything you need. Or, perhaps, you think that there’s no such thing as a well-written Angular directive and so you’ll stick with your Ember components thank-you-very-much. Then again, once your brain is thinking in React, why would you use anything else? This talk is about the reality of component-based web development, told through the frivolous pursuit of a more awesome IMG tag for animated GIFs. It’s a not-so-serious window into a terribly important debate about better encapsulation, reuse, and happiness in our front-end lives. We’ll talk about: The surprisingly complicated logic involved breaking apart and manipulating GIFs Our ideal Component and how it beautifully hides this complexity The different goals, abstractions and constraints of Polymer, Angular, Ember and React The challenges involved in trying to write a component compatible with all of them What the future of developing reusable components might look like GIFs have been a part of the Web since the very beginning, and epitomise the beauty of a simple interface for a powerful, flexible component. What better test for the imminent future of the web than to see how it tackles its past? Transcript & slides: http://2014.jsconf.eu/speakers/glen-maddern-gifs-vs-web-components.html License: For reuse of this video under a more permissive license please get in touch with us. The speakers retain the copyright for their performances.