frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

The Business Case for Vanilla JavaScript

https://lewiscampbell.tech/blog/250430.html
6•LAC-Tech•1y ago

Comments

copypaper•1y ago
I would personally never touch a frontend not written with a framework. Sounds like a terrible developer experience--especially with a team. But from reading your article, it sounds like your issue is with React itself. I would recommend you try Svelte, it sounds like what you're looking for. It's as close to vanilla js as you can get with all the benefits of a framework.
LAC-Tech•1y ago
What benefits of a framework?

I think that's why I wrote this - I almost completely fail to see them.

proc0•1y ago
I think React caved in to wider adoption pressure to introduce abstractions that are intuitive on the surface level but are costly in terms of large scale complexity.

> It's "declarative" right up until you're debugging stateful hooks, or resorting to useRef, or trying to reason about when a "component" re-renders

Maybe they should have modularized the core library more and have these things be separate, because the core idea of a uniflow pattern with reactivity is good.

I think what happened, at least in frontend, is that the industry pushed away from having engineers do any design or architecting on the frontend. All of these high level patterns have been "outsourced" to frameworks, and the result usually is something that has trouble scaling and adjusting to whatever domain it's in.

LAC-Tech•1y ago
Maybe they should have modularized the core library more and have these things be separate, because the core idea of a uniflow pattern with reactivity is good.

That's what SolidJS does. IE the signal implementation is completely stand alone. I feel like it's better at doing what react purports to do then react is.

* think what happened, at least in frontend, is that the industry pushed away from having engineers do any design or architecting on the frontend. All of these high level patterns have been "outsourced" to frameworks*

I don't think react patterns are particularly high level, or do they save you from architecture. Whether it's vanilla JS or react, you still have to design.

proc0•1y ago
Oh I haven't looked at Solidjs yet, interesting will take a look. And yeah you may still need to design your application, but having hooks be something that is out-of-the-box pushes you into certain patterns and needs to be actively ignored to avoid its design influence. I've worked in large codebases where they make almost everything into hooks, and they start getting ridiculous, breaking composability but at the same time giving the illusion that you are making your code more modular.
GianFabien•1y ago
I write web front-ends for industrial embedded systems. So my experience might differ from business WebApps.

In my experience it requires a longer learning curve for the various frameworks than to simply learn the relevant Web API. My learning is very much JIT and over time I have built up a robust class library that gets my stuff done. When I get stuck ChatGPT suggests fixes that sometimes work and spare me from losing more hair.

LAC-Tech•1y ago
My experience too - part of what I found is how much about how react worked I'd forgotten. But the browser itself was easier to pick up.

Real Singles Near You Tonight

http://layana.meet2live.online
2•EmmaJohnsonftr•1m ago•1 comments

The Booing Will Continue Until Commencement Speeches Improve

https://gizmodo.com/the-booing-will-continue-until-commencement-speeches-improve-2000762929
1•makerdiety•2m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Lightweight, zero-dependency Website tour and user onboarding SDK

https://www.npmjs.com/package/@qocial/tour
1•qocialApp•2m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Treasury – Ask your money anything

https://treasury.sh/
1•junead01•2m ago•0 comments

A Language for Describing Agentic LLM Contexts

https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.01920
1•mpweiher•9m ago•0 comments

Conifer, launching June first (free and open source): local inference runtime

https://conifer.build/feedback/
2•loctran0323•12m ago•0 comments

Show HN: MailMark – Cold email tool where you own your domain and mailboxes

1•debasishbarai•17m ago•0 comments

A PR proposes to stabilize the Rust allocator API

https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/156882
1•afdbcreid•17m ago•0 comments

Hyper – an API framework for Bun, distributed as source

https://hyperjs.ai/
1•mmcclure•17m ago•0 comments

QuickGrab – Magic Video Downloader

https://quickgrab.app/
1•exhunter•21m ago•0 comments

TrapDoor Cross-Ecosystem Crypto Stealer Campaign

https://haltingproblems.com/analysis/trapdoor-cross-ecosystem-crypto-stealer/
1•s4mw1se•21m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Voxxy – a minimal, fast voice-to-text app for macOS

https://www.voxxy.io
9•mrguenter•23m ago•0 comments

Anita Calculators: The Technology Explained

http://www.anita-calculators.info/html/the_technology_explained.html
2•rolph•24m ago•0 comments

Flying planes in a geese formation could save carbon emissions

https://www.virgin.com/about-virgin/latest/how-flying-in-a-geese-formation-could-save-carbon-emis...
1•simonebrunozzi•27m ago•1 comments

Show HN: I built a TikTok style video debate app

https://tussup.com
1•frantzarty•28m ago•0 comments

AI agents just got their own web browser via a Firefox fork

https://blog.adafruit.com/2026/05/19/ai-agents-just-got-their-own-web-browser-via-a-firefox-fork/
2•MilnerRoute•37m ago•1 comments

Best TTS models, a blind benchmark

https://techstackups.com/articles/best-tts-2026-blind-benchmark/
1•sixhobbits•44m ago•1 comments

West Coast Cities Turn to Vacancy Taxes to Grapple with Housing Crisis

https://www.theurbanist.org/west-coast-cities-turn-to-vacancy-taxes-to-grapple-with-housing-crisis/
3•harambae•48m ago•0 comments

Rank My Salary

https://rankmysalary.com
3•zakkishahh•48m ago•0 comments

A collection of small, low stakes and low effort tools

https://delphi.tools/
1•anyonecancode•49m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: I only use 30% of my Claude max x5 all model quota

2•firemelt•50m ago•1 comments

Cheap attack drones break through Israel's Iron Dome

https://www.dw.com/en/cheap-attack-drones-break-through-israels-iron-dome/a-77235132
2•Teever•52m ago•0 comments

Machine Code For Beginners (1983) [for the Z80/6502]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxv0SsvibDMTcHNXalEtYkVtU00/view?resourcekey=0-YtCcUG7ytBL-ls8gc...
3•peter_d_sherman•53m ago•0 comments

AI poses "urgent threat" to student learning and the HSC

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/ai-poses-urgent-threat-to-student-learning-and-the-hsc-202605...
2•classichasclass•54m ago•0 comments

Spoqify – Un-personalize your Spotify playlists

https://spoqify.com/
4•eiiot•59m ago•1 comments

Curing US Healthcare, Part III: The Future

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/curing-us-healthcare-part-iii-the
2•rbanffy•1h ago•0 comments

Show HN: Simple Sprite Sheet Generation

https://github.com/acatovic/ai-game-studio
1•armcat•1h ago•0 comments

The political polarization of health outcomes in the USA

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-026-02474-9
24•geox•1h ago•6 comments

Show HN: 18 y/o – built the world's first behavioural intelligence platform

https://www.assemblr.net/
1•adityahv•1h ago•0 comments

Ask HN: Why didn't the C64 come with Simons' BASIC in the box from 1983 onward?

4•amichail•1h ago•1 comments