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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.

Genkit Middleware: Intercept, extend, and harden your agentic apps Blog

https://developers.googleblog.com/announcing-genkit-middleware-intercept-extend-and-harden-your-a...
1•shallow-mind•26s ago•0 comments

Programmable Phones

https://tailrecursion.com/~alan/ProgrammablePhones.html
1•wooby•2m ago•0 comments

The rise and fall of an AI-driven 'local news outlet' in South Florida

https://floridatrib.org/2026/05/14/the-rise-and-fall-of-an-ai-driven-local-news-outlet-in-south-f...
1•martey•5m ago•0 comments

What Are AI Ethics

https://krellixlabs.com/en/blog/what-are-ai-ethics
1•radu_me•6m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: One mistake or hack that taught you the most?

1•SyntaxErrorist•7m ago•2 comments

Agentic evals or LLM as a judge? considering cost, time and quality

1•pipelineofone•9m ago•0 comments

Lookup.disclose.io – find the right security contact for any asset

https://lookup.disclose.io
2•caseyjohnellis•10m ago•1 comments

Agentic SDLC: How OpenSearch accelerates engineering with its own engine

https://opensearch.org/blog/harness-first-agentic-sdlc-how-opensearch-builds-software-using-its-o...
1•Lunar5227•15m ago•0 comments

Show HN: QUptime, quorum based decentralized uptime tool

https://github.com/Axodouble/QUptime
1•Axodouble•17m ago•0 comments

Multi-LLM trading harness with live leaderboard on Alpaca paper trades

https://github.com/achaljhawar/1rok
1•satoshiclad•25m ago•0 comments

What Are the Different Types of AI Testing Tools?

1•allenmatthew•36m ago•0 comments

The Power of the Breath

https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/the-power-of-the-breath/
3•andsoitis•41m ago•2 comments

Social Media Bans Are for Kids. What About Adults?

https://pmz1.substack.com/p/social-media-bans-are-for-kids-what
3•gieksosz•45m ago•1 comments

How climate-resilient homes in India are reducing dependence on air conditioners

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/how-climate-resilient-homes-in-india-are...
2•rustoo•53m ago•0 comments

OpenAI just lost its enterprise AI crown to Anthropic

https://www.businessinsider.com/anthropic-tops-openai-business-ai-adoption-ramp-index-2026-5
3•mazokum•53m ago•0 comments

Edith Eger, Auschwitz Survivor Who Helped Others Cope with Trauma, Dies at 98

https://www.wsj.com/world/edith-eva-eger-dead-13268534
3•hodgesrm•59m ago•0 comments

Britain investigates Microsoft over business software dominance

https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/uk-opens-antitrust-probe-into-microsofts-business-softwa...
3•frm88•1h ago•1 comments

Random AI Explained Fast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XURpiqSelBw
2•KornClown7•1h ago•0 comments

Perfect Number Bomb(2025)

https://www.quantumcalculus.org/odd-perfect-number-bomb/
2•nill0•1h ago•0 comments

FilePilot AI – local-first desktop file manager with optional AI summaries

https://github.com/cuiheng511/filepilot-ai
2•cui511511•1h ago•0 comments

How the Ingredients of Life Make Our Journey Worthwhile

https://medium.com/create-your-career/how-the-ingredients-of-life-make-our-journey-worthwhile-12e...
1•andsoitis•1h ago•0 comments

US reportedly dropped fraud charges against Adani after he hired Trump's lawyer

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/14/gautam-adani-billionaire-trump
2•dilawar•1h ago•0 comments

Logic bug in the Linux kernel's __ptrace_may_access() function (LPE)

https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/05/15/2
2•Tiberium•1h ago•0 comments

Ask HN: How do you catch regressions when you change your AI agent's prompt?

1•yakshithk_•1h ago•0 comments

C++26 Shipped a SIMD Library Nobody Asked For

https://lucisqr.substack.com/p/c26-shipped-a-simd-library-nobody
2•signa11•1h ago•0 comments

Solar Is Everything

https://www.barchart.com/story/news/37361552/solar-is-everything-teslas-elon-musk-says-other-ener...
2•andsoitis•1h ago•0 comments

Claude free usage limits are nuts. useless

4•paulpauper•1h ago•0 comments

PSVL 1.0 – The most comprehensive source-visible license (276 clauses)

https://github.com/BMBOMICH/PSVL
1•BMBOMICH•1h ago•0 comments

How Claude Code works in large codebases

https://claude.com/blog/how-claude-code-works-in-large-codebases-best-practices-and-where-to-start
74•shenli3514•1h ago•45 comments

The Two Sleeps

https://dylan.gr/1775146616
4•James72689•1h ago•0 comments