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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.

ETL CLI – the Swiss army knife you always wanted

https://www.npmjs.com/package/etl-cli
1•zjonsson•19s ago•0 comments

Ask HN: What game have you replayed more times than any other?

1•yashnitro•41s ago•0 comments

Pdf2api – Turn Messy API Doc PDFs into OpenAPI, Postman and SDKs

https://pdf2api.hedvion.com
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Show HN: ERPC – encrypted, typed RPC over any bidirectional channel

https://github.com/dotexorg/erpc
2•dotexorg•6m ago•0 comments

Atomically precise mechanosynthesis of carbon structures on hydrogenated Silicon

https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.27250
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Video Quality Evaluation Methodology and Result of AV2 Compression Performance

https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.15800
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https://lucumr.pocoo.org/2026/5/26/clankers/
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Latitude37 – a new accelerator for young Aussie technical founders

https://latitude37.org/
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AionUi: Open-Source AI Cowork Platform for Claude Code, Codex and Gemini

https://github.com/iOfficeAI/AionUi
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The SpaceX IPO and Data Centers in Space

https://stratechery.com/2026/the-spacex-ipo-and-data-centers-in-space/
1•swolpers•15m ago•0 comments

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https://red.anthropic.com/2026/cvd/
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The craziest steroid Olympics ended in total embarrassment

https://xcancel.com/nexta_tv/status/2059562755196068135
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Dutch govt. blocks US company from acquisition, citing 'risk to public interest'

https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/26/dutch-government-blocks-us-company-from-acquisition-citing-risk...
1•frb•19m ago•0 comments

AI PDF Builder – Create and Fill PDF Documents with AI

https://pdfaibuilder.ai
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https://sjg.io/writing/no-your-agent-skill-is-not-automation/
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Show HN: BeeZee – OSS lightweight remote harness orchestration and observability

https://github.com/BeeZeeAgent/beezee
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Bitcoin Gift Cards. Buy, send and spend Bitcoin gift cards

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Using SwiftUI to Build a Mac-Assed App in 2026

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2•yacin•33m ago•0 comments

Ask HN : What are some of your favourite developer tools?

1•dhruv3006•35m ago•1 comments

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https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/05/26/1137865/its-time-to-address-the-looming-crisis-in-ent...
1•joozio•36m ago•0 comments

RepoRecon – a Claude Code plugin that validates project ideas against GitHub

https://github.com/suleman-dawood/reporecon
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US law enforcement warns of "anti-tech extremism" as AI hatred grows

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Static Forms – open alternative to Formspree for static websites

https://static-forms.com
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Dense vs. Moe Model

https://engineersmeetai.substack.com/p/dense-vs-moe-models-explained
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Jensen Huang says CEOs who blame AI for layoffs are giving a 'lazy' excuse

https://www.businessinsider.com/nvidia-ceo-jensen-huang-ai-job-cuts-losses-lazy-narrative-2026-5
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Trying Out C++ as a Web Developer

https://hooby.blog/posts/trying-cpp-as-a-webdev/
1•hooby•38m ago•2 comments

Avatar 4.0 – A living AI organism with physics body, emotions, on a GTX 1660 Ti

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Plan Mode Is a Crutch

https://graphcoder.ai/blog/plan-mode-is-a-crutch
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Readable.css

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