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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.

I'm Begging You: Never Write with A.I

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/opinion/artificial-intelligence-ai-writing.html
1•nreece•6m ago•0 comments

Fireworks.ai Update on October 2026 security incident

https://fireworks.ai/security/bulletins/october-2026-security-incident-update
1•edot•7m ago•1 comments

Electromagnetic Field

https://www.emfcamp.org/
1•thatslast•11m ago•0 comments

The EU Digital Networks Act is throwing away net neutrality

https://savetheinternet.eu/
1•HeyMeco•13m ago•0 comments

SoftBank posts $7B Q2 net loss as tech selloff hits results

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/11/10/softbank-2q-earnings-tech-selloff.html
1•snikolaev•15m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Track known vulnerabilities in the firmware your devices run

https://pinscope.dev/cra
1•pinscope_dev•19m ago•0 comments

If a MacBook Pro runs hot or shows high kernel CPU, try charging it on the right

https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/363933/182292
1•germanrabbit•21m ago•0 comments

I Access Auditor – see and revoke what your AI coding agents can access

https://github.com/dirmedmr-alt/ai-access-auditor
1•dirmed•23m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Patchlag – Kernel CVE fix delay: Debian 13 median 12 days, Ubuntu 109

https://thewingthewong.github.io/patchlag/
1•enzahere•25m ago•0 comments

MemoryDojo: Benchmarking Poisoning Through LLM Agent Memory

https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.09721
1•anatolii1309•26m ago•0 comments

Chris van Eijk: JSON vs. jsonb in PostgreSQL: size and speed, measured

https://now-next.nl/en/insights/postgresql-json-vs-jsonb-measured/
3•millspore•27m ago•0 comments

LAN Party game caching made easy

https://lancache.net/
1•rzk•31m ago•0 comments

Beyond the compiler: Making IBM i run modified native code

https://blog.silentsignal.eu/2026/11/10/Beyond-the-compiler-Making-IBM-i-run-modified-native-code...
1•dnet•34m ago•0 comments

Why product management will never give you instant gratification

https://www.leadinginproduct.com/p/product-management-instant-gratification
1•benkan•34m ago•0 comments

Return of the Living Dead Cast Horrified by AI-Made Sequel They Were Set to Star

https://kotaku.com/return-of-the-living-dead-cast-horrified-by-ai-made-sequel-they-were-originall...
2•benkan•34m ago•0 comments

Gary Fisketjon Has Died. He Edited Ellis, Tartt, McInerney and McCarthy

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/09/obituaries/gary-fisketjon-dead.html
1•toomuchtodo•35m ago•1 comments

Huawei says it's made a 100 percent Chinese PC

https://www.theregister.com/systems/2026/11/09/huawei-says-its-made-a-100-percent-chinese-pc/5308335
2•benkan•35m ago•0 comments

My Partner's Dependence on Chatbots Is Becoming a Problem. How Do I Tell Him?

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/30/magazine/partner-chatbot-dependence-ethics.html
2•rzk•37m ago•1 comments

Prometheus: For nerds like me who loves maps and history combined

https://exploreprometheus.com/
2•schemingboi•40m ago•1 comments

Digestion-resistant proteins support the healthy metabolite profiles

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2605226123
2•01-_-•43m ago•0 comments

WQ Files is a file browser, app data manager and cache cleaner for iOS 26 and 27

https://github.com/kolbicz/WQFiles
1•gslin•46m ago•0 comments

Does until it doesn't and doesn't until it does

https://rodneybrooks.com/does-until-it-doesnt-and-doesnt-until-it-does/
1•v9v•46m ago•0 comments

Building Super (LLM) Soldiers

https://blog.codemine.be/posts/2026/20261001-lean-in/
1•avh3•48m ago•0 comments

Show HN: NanoLaunch - Submit Your Tool

https://nanolaunch.online/submit/
2•gingermanymph•51m ago•0 comments

The coin-flipping that counts the Internet – how the HyperLogLog algorithm works

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-coin-flipping-trick-that-counts-the-internet/
1•beardyw•55m ago•0 comments

Antelog – stops AI coding agents from running dangerous commands

https://antelog.dev/
1•Yashsarwaiya•56m ago•0 comments

When Will We Stop Reading Code?

https://misfra.me/2026/when-will-we-stop-reading-code/
1•preetamjinka•57m ago•2 comments

Hims and Hers to offer unapproved peptides after US eases curbs

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/hims-hers-narrows-2026-revenue-foreca...
2•1659447091•57m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Clingon – Markdown cheatsheets that run in your real shell

https://github.com/con-dog/clingon/blob/master/README.md
3•purple-leafy•1h ago•0 comments

Montray – Don't let a broken systemd service go unnoticed

https://github.com/dimonomid/montray
1•dimonomid•1h ago•0 comments