We're switching Atom to React, but we want to support backward-compatible shims to our previous view framework.

In the old framework, views were represented as jQuery-wrapped DOM elements. Ideally, we'd like to provide backward-compatible shims by simply rendering the React component and wrapping its root element in a jQuery wrapper with an API that's compatible to our old editor views. That would essentially look like this:

``` javascript
var editorRoot = document.createElement('div')
React.renderComponentWithRootElement(Editor(props), editorRoot)

// the element would actually be wrapped in a custom subclass of jQuery,
// but this is clearer for this example
var editorShim = $(editorRoot) 
```

Currently, this isn't possible because React components need to be rendered into a container. So instead we need to create a wrapper element and render the component inside it. This is sad because it adds an extra layer of markup which confuses styling, and also means that the editor has a wrapper when used via the shim layer but no wrapper when embedded as a child via React itself.

Is there something fundamental preventing React from adopting DOM nodes directly without the parent? Is this something we could even hack in in a way that would be somewhat maintainable?

:heart:

UNSAFE_componentWillMount = logger('inner componentWillMount');
      componentDidMount = logger('inner componentDidMount');
      UNSAFE_componentWillReceiveProps = logger(
        'inner componentWillReceiveProps',
      );
      shouldComponentUpdate = logger('inner shouldComponentUpdate');
      UNSAFE_componentWillUpdate = logger('inner componentWillUpdate');
      componentDidUpdate = logger('inner componentDidUpdate');
      componentWillUnmount = logger('inner componentWillUnmount');
      render() {
        return <span>{this.props.x}</span>;
      }
    }
    const container = document.createElement('div');
    log = [];
    ReactDOM.render(<Outer x={1} />, container);
    expect(log).toEqual([
      'outer componentWillMount',
      'inner componentWillMount',
      'inner componentDidMount',
      'outer componentDidMount',
    ]);