The power of web components is having the ability to develop complex front end without the need for a build tool in 2026. In 2008 when I got started with heavy javascript jquery was a must have tool to fill in for all the horrible browser api incompatibilites at the time. But because we are just developing custom elements with vanilla it works fine with vue and rust and all the others.
Why Vanilla JavaScript
31–40 of 176 posts
Re: Why Vanilla JavaScript
#32Vanilla JavaScript makes sense for personal projects, but if you're working on a team, I wouldn't trust other team members to not create their own frameworks that may not be as well documented.
Especially nowadays with LLMs, the team would benefit more from the LLM innately knowing a widely used library/framework than having to spend context each session teaching the agent your custom setup through context files and skills.
Re: Why Vanilla JavaScript
#33*vanilla typescript
Re: Why Vanilla JavaScript
#34Even better: vanilla TypeScript + golang middleware (esbuild) on the backend that converts to JS on the fly. Like vanilla JS but with all the benefits of a type system and no bundler or npm required.
You still need a build tool, and that tool is likely broken if you need to return to the project in a year or two.
TypeScript benefits can be had without a build step by leveraging JsDoc.
Re: Why Vanilla JavaScript
#35Did anyone else notice the pattern that ever since the LLMs got popular the "I hate javascript" kind of posts or comments have decreased? It could be attributed also to typescript dominance of course, since people don't use plain js anymore. As for the blog post, I agree, I also implemented my own js framework when I code in vanilla js and it works fine. The problem is not inventing frameworks, the problem is that ev…
I think the complaints attenuated in the last in the last 10-15 years because javascript itself became a much better language. Things really started to change with ES5. The introduction of let / const, modules, async, .?, template strings, etc. transformed it from an ugly kludge to a really capable language.
Of course, if you use old syntax you still deal with weird scoping and casting, but you don't have to any more.
Also, I think the framework churn has slowed considerably in the last 5 years.
Re: Why Vanilla JavaScript
#36My take is that the take that vanilla js is better because developers love coding more than they love building the thing. See all the frameworks/packages built as an example.
This person re-invented form handlers, frameworks, ui helpers just to be able to do some basic things.
All power to you if you like it, its just funny.
Re: Why Vanilla JavaScript
#37Did I misunderstand or was that whole rant just to establish that, actually, we do need super tiny frameworks for the front end, but they're super tiny so it's not a big deal and they're not bad like React?
Re: Why Vanilla JavaScript
#38I have to admit that I really love web components ever since Polymer 1, and agree with the article sentiment (this post was starting to get to be a mirror of many of the authors thoughts, so cut it down)
It is very interesting watching the Web cycles, and found it curious how many people here were sad that typescript was not mentioned. There are some fun (though I suppose dangerous) things you can do without it, and I've found it has had very many instances not helped me where expected like a fully matured typed language has. And I've worked with a lot of people who just went I added types and don't know how to use generics.
I guess if you have it poorly implemented, then it's best to leave as JavaScript. And, web components you can keep things very simple... Which helps keep many errors down.
Re: Why Vanilla JavaScript
#39Vanilla JavaScript makes sense for personal projects, but if you're working on a team, I wouldn't trust other team members to not create their own frameworks that may not be as well documented. Especially nowadays with LLMs, the team would benefit more from the LLM innately knowing a widely used library/framework than having to spend context each session teaching the agent your custom setup through context files and…
Sure, when I wrote JavaScript for a living I wouldn't trust my employer to get hiring or training right either.
Re: Why Vanilla JavaScript
#40The power of web components is having the ability to develop complex front end without the need for a build tool in 2026. In 2008 when I got started with heavy javascript jquery was a must have tool to fill in for all the horrible browser api incompatibilites at the time. But because we are just developing custom elements with vanilla it works fine with vue and rust and all the others.
I write in vanilla TypeScript. I do not have any build step in my application. Since Node now supports native type stripping I don't have a compile step either. I just write my code and then point node at the main file, and this even includes front-end code for the browser.