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The Business Case for Vanilla JavaScript

https://lewiscampbell.tech/blog/250430.html
6•LAC-Tech•9mo ago

Comments

copypaper•9mo 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•9mo ago
What benefits of a framework?

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

proc0•9mo 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•9mo 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•9mo 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•9mo 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•9mo 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.

DeepWiki and Increasing Malleability of Software

https://twitter.com/karpathy/status/2021633574089416993
1•sabareesh•39s ago•0 comments

AI Soap (the bar, not the API)

https://github.com/mikewolfd/soap-calc
1•mikewolfd•50s ago•1 comments

Show HN: Snaprookies a unified orchestrated layer for 27 generative AI workflow

https://snaprookies.org/
1•RichardOdds•2m ago•1 comments

OpenClaw Partners with VirusTotal for Skill Security

https://openclaw.ai/blog/virustotal-partnership
1•coonr•6m ago•0 comments

"I built a site to explore and analyze all 18,500 Pitchfork reviews"

https://old.reddit.com/r/indieheads/comments/1r4watg/i_built_a_site_to_explore_and_analyze_all_18...
1•surprisetalk•8m ago•0 comments

Token Anxiety

https://writing.nikunjk.com/p/token-anxiety
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https://www.thesubspace.io/
1•viveknar•10m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Repy – Terminal ePub reader with built-in TTS and dictionary lookup

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3•dawdler-purge•14m ago•1 comments

India doubles down on state-backed venture capital, approving $1.1B fund

https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/14/india-doubles-down-on-state-backed-venture-capital-approving-1-...
3•vednig•15m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Google Maps in Your Terminal

https://github.com/Luthiraa/ascii-map
1•luthiraabeykoon•16m ago•0 comments

The allegations against a San Francisco social climber accused of sex crimes

https://sfstandard.com/2026/02/12/mickey-gerold-sex-crimes-investigation/
1•_delirium•21m ago•0 comments

Linear Representations and Superposition

http://ternarysearch.blogspot.com/2026/02/linear-representations-and-superposition.html
2•paladin314159•25m ago•0 comments

China is the real threat, Taiwan says in rebuff to Munich speech

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-is-real-threat-taiwan-says-rebuff-munich-speech-2026-02...
2•DustinEchoes•26m ago•0 comments

BabyVision: Visual Reasoning Beyond Language

https://xbench.org/agi/babyVision
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BotPass: A Reverse Verification Protocol which allows only agents

https://twitter.com/_ar9av/status/2022649198756446424
2•anishgupta•27m ago•2 comments

I Had to Write a Script to Submit My Medical Claims to Cigna

https://www.provos.org/p/had-to-write-a-script-to-submit-to-cigna/
2•nielsprovos•33m ago•1 comments

C# implementation of state machine declared using fluent syntax

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1•cosmok•40m ago•1 comments

Take photos with scotch tape, not lens

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97f0nfU5Px0
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Show HN: Give a Voice to Your AI Agent

https://fellowgeek.github.io/mcp-speak/
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Interview with CEO of rsync.net: "no firewalls and no routers" (2021)

https://web.archive.org/web/20210318194443/https://console.dev/qa/rsync-john-kozubik/
1•gurjeet•46m ago•0 comments

TextBar – tiny app that lets you add any text to macOS menu bar

https://github.com/richie5um/TextBar
1•gurjeet•47m ago•0 comments

Exploring Rust Traits

https://beej.us/blog/data/rust-trait-impl/
1•vinhnx•56m ago•0 comments

Aristotle and the so-called Tragic Flaw

https://jonathanbate.substack.com/p/aristotle-and-the-so-called-tragic
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Show HN: Letta – Git-Based Memory for Coding Agents

https://www.letta.com/
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Mimir: GPU Computational Kernels in Rust

https://github.com/ccleavinger/mimir
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Show HN: Generate unique icon sets and extend them later in the same style

https://iconsmint.com
1•tommydolso•1h ago•0 comments

Quamina and Claude, Case 1

https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2026/02/06/Q-Plus-C-Ch1
1•zdw•1h ago•0 comments

Show HN: Quoracle: Self-replicating multi-LLM-consensus agents (Elixir)

https://github.com/shelvick/quoracle
1•shelvick•1h ago•1 comments

Our security auditor is an idiot. How do I give him the information he wants?

https://serverfault.com/questions/293217/our-security-auditor-is-an-idiot-how-do-i-give-him-the-i...
3•gurjeet•1h ago•1 comments