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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.

What if we legally required politicians to work regular jobs 2 months a year?

1•ekoeko•7m ago•0 comments

Validates AI

https://validates.ai/
2•bellannns•7m ago•0 comments

I got shadow banned on X, 3 mistakes that led me to it

https://www.indiehackers.com/post/i-got-shadow-banned-on-x-3-mistakes-that-led-me-to-it-MIYYUCRyR...
1•kartik0001•8m ago•0 comments

A major KPMG report on AI was found to be chock-full of AI hallucinations

https://www.techradar.com/pro/a-major-kpmg-report-on-ai-was-found-to-be-chock-full-of-ai-hallucin...
1•thm•10m ago•0 comments

US Government directive to suspend access to Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5

https://twitter.com/AnthropicAI/status/2065597531644743999
1•corentin88•11m ago•0 comments

WhatCable 1.0 – USB-C cable inspector for macOS, now with a TUI

https://www.whatcable.uk/
1•sleepingNomad•11m ago•0 comments

I used sound waves to make espresso. It could cut coffee‑brewing energy use by ¾

https://theconversation.com/i-used-sound-waves-to-make-espresso-it-could-cut-coffee-brewing-energ...
1•zeristor•17m ago•0 comments

Patterns of Software [pdf]

https://www.dreamsongs.com/Files/PatternsOfSoftware.pdf
2•tosh•20m ago•0 comments

The Simple Plan and Phase 3 of the real human network

https://world.org/blog/foundational-topics/thesimpleplan
1•helloplanets•22m ago•0 comments

Whissle Gateway – Run Multi-Modal Voice AI Locally in a 500MB Docker

https://whissle.ai/gateway
1•ksingla025•23m ago•0 comments

Ukraine MoD and Palantir build drone detection using war data

https://defensemirror.com/news/41613/Ukrainian_MoD__Palantir_Tech_Developing_Drone_Detection_Mode...
1•01-_-•24m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: What's the biggest problem you ever prevented?

2•bschne•25m ago•0 comments

Controversial FISA spying law expires tonight. The spying will continue

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/06/controversial-fisa-spying-law-expires-tonight-the-spy...
1•01-_-•28m ago•0 comments

Lojban

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lojban
2•tosh•29m ago•0 comments

The quantum computing revolution is closer than you think

https://www.ft.com/content/7e461be0-5c13-4a93-a0f8-0659ae5505a2
1•thm•34m ago•0 comments

focus - A simple and fast text editor

https://github.com/focus-editor/focus
1•modinfo•34m ago•0 comments

WASM_of_OCaml on WASI: A Working Prototype Looking for a Production User

https://ocaml.org/backstage/2026-06-09-wasm-of-ocaml-on-wasi-a-working-prototype-looking-for-a-pr...
1•TheWiggles•35m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: Automoderated by AI Alternative to Reddit

1•julienreszka•37m ago•0 comments

Teach Your Kids to Pirate. Now [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBFlWUnjkRc
1•Cider9986•42m ago•0 comments

Show HN: theta_py, bindings to the Theta CLI

https://github.com/tamarillo-ai/theta_py
1•ivanbelenky•43m ago•0 comments

The Department of War just released the third tranche of records

https://www.war.gov/UFO/release/03/
2•aggrrrh•45m ago•0 comments

Old games feel "hard" because modern emulators have layers of abstraction

https://twitter.com/lauriewired/status/2065553747078709500
1•tosh•49m ago•0 comments

For NBA fans: If you loved 82-0 you'll love this

https://nbabrawl.netlify.app
1•Mwalwala•53m ago•0 comments

Israeli firm BlackCore suspected of meddling in New York and Scotland votes

https://www.reuters.com/world/israeli-firm-blackcore-also-suspected-meddling-nyc-scotland-votes-f...
52•pera•53m ago•9 comments

Anthropic disables top-tier AI models outside US

https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-blocks-foreign-access-anthropics-most-advanced-ai-models-ax...
5•apples_oranges•1h ago•0 comments

Ask HN: What Are You Working On?

4•eisleggje•1h ago•1 comments

Drinkner – Matches your bar to the 102 IBA cocktails, AI only on miss

https://www.drinkner.com/
2•alexsa•1h ago•0 comments

IP Crawl: A living atlas of open webcams discovered on the public internet

https://ipcrawl.com/?sort=favorites
2•jumploops•1h ago•0 comments

Self-Discovery Through Archaeology

https://kesjr.com
2•promptfluid•1h ago•0 comments

Agent just scaffolded a project from 2020

https://developer.microsoft.com/blog/your-agent-just-scaffolded-a-project-from-2020
2•waldekm•1h ago•0 comments