What I also disliked was how they don't explain how to get it working without a build-environment like webpack. That makes it really a "framework" in the sense that it's all-or-nothing. Again, not my style. I prefer self-contained libraries.
However:
> What I also disliked was how they don't explain how to get it working without a build-environment like webpack.
This doesn't make sense. The official website includes a way to use it by just including a script from the CDN, on the "Get Started" page. It even discourages using the build tools if you don't have prior experience: https://vuejs.org/v2/guide/
But how about an explanation of how to compile the .vue files (used in the examples) to JS? Or how to do without them?
Just put that on an HTML file and run it in a browser. No need for any tool other than a text editor.
To compile .vue files you have to use vue-cli (linked on the "Get Started" page), or some third-party tool (instructions here: https://vuejs.org/v2/guide/deployment.html).
Still, I wonder, how do I make components? Are they also encoded in the DOM tree? It feels a bit strange to encode templates in the actual DOM tree, even without using them.
You can "do without them" but going to .vue files that you like, and splitting them back up into their HTML and JS bits and copying and pasting them into places you like.
vue really isn't at its full potential without using webpack/browsify. But I understand not wanting to use it.
For example, we've been sprinkling vue into an existing jquery+bootstrap internal application. It's flask/python, so we just went in and split up things that would be a .vue component into HTML snippets that we can embed using our templating engine, and JS components that you just src include. Now we have bare bones reusuability (no composability though). We'll probably have to swallow the bullet and just figure out webpack/browsify.
I suggest create your actual project with vue-cli once you get familiar with the vue syntax.
Your comment is a bit mystifying. Go to https://vuejs.org/. Click "Get Started". There is literally an example right there on the page, the first thing they show you is a frameworkless Vuejs app with nothing but a script tag.
if anything this is one of VueJS's advantages over most other similar frameworks.
That's weird you think VueJS is weak on this feature, because this is basically VueJS's most significant competitive advantage over react and one thing it does extremely well and has tons of documentation and tutorials for.