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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.

This Week in Plasma: Audio Recording in Spectacle

https://blogs.kde.org/2026/07/11/this-week-in-plasma-audio-recording-in-spectacle/
1•HieronymusBosch•4m ago•0 comments

The allergy culprit histamine also boosts our memory

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2533166-the-allergy-culprit-histamine-also-boosts-our-memory/
1•XzetaU8•7m ago•0 comments

Java local AI client and MCP orchestrator without the Python dependency hell

https://ypipe.com/
1•ruoku•19m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: How are you controlling Token Costs?

1•jainojas•25m ago•0 comments

MuseAir hash: new fastest high-quality portable hashing algorithm

https://github.com/eternal-io/museair
1•eternal-io•29m ago•0 comments

SAP concedes to EU, freeing CIOs from expensive support shackles

https://www.cio.com/article/4195520/sap-concedes-to-eu-freeing-cios-from-expensive-support-shackl...
1•thibautg•29m ago•0 comments

Europe's slow electrification is a 'major mistake', warns IEA chief

https://www.ft.com/content/fbeb7df0-41fb-4981-8d78-01c7a95d3ed6
2•JumpCrisscross•32m ago•0 comments

Making a Contribution: The Story of EBR-II [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf7OtFIA6LY
1•mpweiher•35m ago•0 comments

HuggingNews

https://huggingnews.com/
1•ilreb•36m ago•0 comments

Decommissioning the original Model S and X assembly line in just 46 days

https://twitter.com/gigafactories/status/2075636160508866562
1•simonebrunozzi•38m ago•0 comments

What's the best way to do authentication in modern applications

https://neciudan.dev/most-secure-way-to-store-auth-token
2•freediver•40m ago•0 comments

Open source retro futuristic pi camera

https://old.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/1urysi6/four_months_ago_i_showed_my_retrofuturisti...
2•ludkiller•47m ago•2 comments

Show HN: KRNL – a quieter browser for the essence of the web

1•keepamovin•49m ago•0 comments

Create high-converting AI UGC ads in minutes

https://aiugcads.net/
1•mrguo•51m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Krbn, a pencil-style 3D renderer with SVG output

https://github.com/vpalos/Krbn
2•vpalos•57m ago•0 comments

The Metaphysics (350 BCE)

https://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/metaphysics.1.i.html
1•andsoitis•1h ago•0 comments

Meta Deletes Face-Recognition System from Smart Glasses App After Wired Report

https://www.wired.com/story/meta-removes-face-recognition-code-meta-ai-app-smart-glasses/
1•1vuio0pswjnm7•1h ago•0 comments

Hasharot – Control a Claude Code agent on your machine from Telegram

https://github.com/Mamasodikov/hasharot
1•mamasodikov•1h ago•0 comments

Why Rodents Can't Throw Up, in Case You Were Wondering

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-rodents-cant-throw-up-in-case-you-were-wondering-25...
1•thunderbong•1h ago•1 comments

Show HN: isitsecure - 1-command SAST & DAST & LLM security scanner for web apps

https://github.com/jaurakunal/isitsecure
2•kunaljaura•1h ago•0 comments

The Conversation We're Not Having About AI in Peer Review

https://cabird.com/ide/posts/ai-in-peer-review
1•azhenley•1h ago•0 comments

Why is (the word game) Lingo 'lightning in a bottle'? (2026)

https://icely.neocities.org/articles/lingo-lightning-in-a-bottle
1•icely•1h ago•0 comments

Parents' Phone Addiction Affects Bond with Kids, New Study Finds

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-08/parents-phone-addiction-affects-bond-with-kids...
1•1vuio0pswjnm7•1h ago•0 comments

Show HN: River Rescue – Game mechanic for 3yo

https://www.pip.quest/
1•satellite2•1h ago•2 comments

Crypto Criminal Accused of Crypto Crimes Again, While in Jail

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-09/crypto-criminal-accused-of-crypto-crimes-again...
1•1vuio0pswjnm7•1h ago•0 comments

Self-replicating spacecraft, a.k.a. von Neumann probes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-replicating_spacecraft
1•gurjeet•1h ago•0 comments

Depone – Delete legacy require_once with proof, not guesswork

https://github.com/lll-lll-lll-lll/depone
2•www_lll•1h ago•0 comments

AI Limit, Social Divide

https://valand.dev/blog/post/ai-limit-divide
1•valand•1h ago•0 comments

Nectar: A programming language that compiles to WebAssembly

https://github.com/HibiscusConsulting/nectar-lang
2•handfuloflight•1h ago•0 comments

Vermont becomes first US state to ban paraquat herbicide over Parkinson's fears

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/may/26/vermont-paraquat-weedkiller-ban
3•xoa•1h ago•0 comments