This is a special jqLite.replaceWith, which can replace items which
have no parents, provided that the containing jqLite collection is provided.

@param {JqLite=} $rootElement The root of the compile tree. Used so that we can replace nodes
in the root of the tree.
@param {JqLite} elementsToRemove The jqLite element which we are going to replace. We keep
the shell, but replace its DOM node reference.
@param {Node} newNode The new DOM node.
function replaceWith($rootElement, elementsToRemove, newNode) {
      var firstElementToRemove = elementsToRemove[0],
          removeCount = elementsToRemove.length,
          parent = firstElementToRemove.parentNode,
          i, ii;

      if ($rootElement) {
        for (i = 0, ii = $rootElement.length; i < ii; i++) {
          if ($rootElement[i] === firstElementToRemove) {
            $rootElement[i++] = newNode;
            for (var j = i, j2 = j + removeCount - 1,
                     jj = $rootElement.length;
                 j < jj; j++, j2++) {
              if (j2 < jj) {
                $rootElement[j] = $rootElement[j2];
              } else {
                delete $rootElement[j];
              }
            }
            $rootElement.length -= removeCount - 1;

            // If the replaced element is also the jQuery .context then replace it
            // .context is a deprecated jQuery api, so we should set it only when jQuery set it
            // http://api.jquery.com/context/
            if ($rootElement.context === firstElementToRemove) {
              $rootElement.context = newNode;
            }
            break;
          }
        }
      }

      if (parent) {
        parent.replaceChild(newNode, firstElementToRemove);
      }

      // Append all the `elementsToRemove` to a fragment. This will...
      // - remove them from the DOM
      // - allow them to still be traversed with .nextSibling
      // - allow a single fragment.qSA to fetch all elements being removed
      var fragment = window.document.createDocumentFragment();
      for (i = 0; i < removeCount; i++) {
        fragment.appendChild(elementsToRemove[i]);
      }

      if (jqLite.hasData(firstElementToRemove)) {
        // Copy over user data (that includes AngularJS's $scope etc.). Don't copy private
        // data here because there's no public interface in jQuery to do that and copying over
        // event listeners (which is the main use of private data) wouldn't work anyway.
        jqLite.data(newNode, jqLite.data(firstElementToRemove));

        // Remove $destroy event listeners from `firstElementToRemove`
        jqLite(firstElementToRemove).off('$destroy');
      }

      // Cleanup any data/listeners on the elements and children.
      // This includes invoking the $destroy event on any elements with listeners.
      jqLite.cleanData(fragment.querySelectorAll('*'));

      // Update the jqLite collection to only contain the `newNode`
      for (i = 1; i < removeCount; i++) {
        delete elementsToRemove[i];
      }
      elementsToRemove[0] = newNode;
      elementsToRemove.length = 1;
    }