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The Business Case for Vanilla JavaScript

https://lewiscampbell.tech/blog/250430.html
6•LAC-Tech•11mo ago

Comments

copypaper•11mo 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•11mo ago
What benefits of a framework?

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

proc0•11mo 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•11mo 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•11mo 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•11mo 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•11mo 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.

Show HN: Make Video from Photo for Free

https://makevideofromphoto.com/
1•pekingzcc•41s ago•0 comments

Beijing humanoid robot half-marathon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwBK8EH5KlY
1•Animats•17m ago•0 comments

The Flipper Zero is now rewriting electronic price tags (The Verge)

https://www.theverge.com/tech/912713/the-flipper-zero-is-now-rickrolling-electronic-price-tags-at...
1•hackerfizh•19m ago•0 comments

We ran 1,000 queries through ChatGPT: 48 domains produced 22.5% of citations

https://growtika.com/blog/chatgpt-citation-economy
1•Growtika•22m ago•0 comments

Book Summary: "Essentialism" by Greg McKeown

https://nielsbohrmann.com/essentialism-book-summary/
1•dsego•23m ago•0 comments

GitHub – Merit-Systems/Echo: The User Pays AI SDK

https://github.com/Merit-Systems/echo
2•fagnerbrack•34m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Fuelgauge – a Claude Code status line that doesn't need Node

https://github.com/adityaarakeri/fuelgauge
2•humblejedi•36m ago•0 comments

Third Place

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place
1•thunderbong•37m ago•0 comments

Meta to cut 8k jobs 10% of workforce in major bloodbath next month

https://nypost.com/2026/04/17/business/meta-to-cut-8000-jobs-in-major-bloodbath-next-month-report/
4•1vuio0pswjnm7•43m ago•1 comments

Prefill-as-a-Service:KVCache of Next-Generation Models Could Go Cross-Datacenter

https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.15039
2•matt_d•45m ago•0 comments

Ultrafast spectral primes generator (Python code)

https://github.com/model-vpr/ultrafast-spectral-primes
2•vpr-research•55m ago•0 comments

Generative artificial intelligence for computational chemistry

https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.03118
1•bdg•59m ago•0 comments

Design.md

https://github.com/VoltAgent/awesome-design-md
1•granto•1h ago•0 comments

Chernobyl's last wedding: The couple who married as a nuclear disaster unfolded

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0q92lx8q75o
1•1659447091•1h ago•0 comments

Cheng Li-Wun: From Hunger Strike for Taiwan Independence to Meeting Xi Jinping

https://taiwan.md/en/people/cheng-li-wun/
1•salkahfi•1h ago•0 comments

Breakthrough Prize Announces 2026 Laureates

https://breakthroughprize.org/News/98
1•diwank•1h ago•0 comments

Show HN: AgentKey – Access governance for AI agents

https://agentkey.dev
2•cracadumi•1h ago•2 comments

Study suggests some Alzheimer's symptoms may begin outside the brain

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-alzheimer-symptoms-brain.html
2•bookmtn•1h ago•0 comments

2026 humanoid robot half-marathon kicks off in Beijing [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqgc9C3cC6U
1•kasperni•1h ago•0 comments

Master of chaos wins $3M math prize for 'blowing up' equations

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/master-of-chaos-wins-usd3m-math-prize-for-blowing-up-e...
1•tzury•1h ago•0 comments

The next food crisis may have begun

https://www.irishtimes.com/world/middle-east/2026/04/16/the-worlds-next-food-crisis-may-have-alre...
3•measurablefunc•1h ago•0 comments

Shanghai Relocates Neighbourhood with Robots (2025)

https://parametric-architecture.com/shanghai-relocates-7500-ton-shikumen-complex-with-robots/
1•thenthenthen•1h ago•0 comments

Berkeley EECS undergraduate TAs paid $89-102/HR

https://twitter.com/minilek/status/2045632119087448164
2•osnium123•1h ago•1 comments

Show HN: Fuelgauge – a Claude Code status line that doesn't need Node

https://github.com/adityaarakeri/fuelguage
1•humblejedi•1h ago•1 comments

Ask HN: Which IDE are you using?

1•wasimsk•1h ago•3 comments

Trump orders fast tracking review of psychedelics for mental health disorders

https://www.npr.org/2026/04/18/nx-s1-5789859/psychedelic-treatments-mental-health
6•mikhael•1h ago•1 comments

Show HN: Customer Reviews can be represented through Voice capture/generation

https://customersvoices.com
1•Zavora•2h ago•0 comments

Garbage Collection Without Unsafe Code

https://fitzgen.com/2024/02/06/safe-gc.html
2•foota•2h ago•0 comments

First trailer released for western starring AI version of Val Kilmer

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/apr/16/first-trailer-released-for-ai-val-kilmer-western
1•breve•2h ago•1 comments

Ask HN: Where do I submit a bug report for Windows Snipping Tool?

1•pests•2h ago•0 comments