You don't need React: creating a minimal UI library in Vanilla JavaScript • Hacker News Board

Re: You don't need React: creating a minimal UI library in Vanilla JavaScript

#11

Post by inigyou » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 9:58 AM UTC

pedro_movai wrote: post #8

Oras wrote: post #4

> The only potential issue with immediate mode is performance, since we need to re-render the entire UI on every state change. How this made it to HN front page?

I think the author is saying a potential issue of a vanilla implementation of immediate mode. The following text explains that there is already many optimizations for this

Nothing in HTML is immediate mode. Any framework with a DOM is retained mode, by definition.

Re: You don't need React: creating a minimal UI library in Vanilla JavaScript

#12

Post by netdur » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 9:59 AM UTC

unlike many of the commenters, I found this pretty nice and educational, there are full stack developers who cannot write anything outside React and do not even understand why React was created in the first place

Re: You don't need React: creating a minimal UI library in Vanilla JavaScript

#13

Post by inigyou » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 10:00 AM UTC

Flavius wrote: post #3

After looking at the code in the tic tac toe example I am now 100% convinced that I need React.

React and systemd feel the same way to me: both really sensible ideas at the core, surrounded in layers of bullshit.

Re: You don't need React: creating a minimal UI library in Vanilla JavaScript

#14

Post by bofadeez » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 10:01 AM UTC

[flagged]

Re: You don't need React: creating a minimal UI library in Vanilla JavaScript

#15

Post by pedro_movai » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 10:03 AM UTC

inigyou wrote: post #11

pedro_movai wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the author is saying a potential issue of a vanilla implementation of immediate mode. The following text explains that there is already many optimizations for this

Nothing in HTML is immediate mode. Any framework with a DOM is retained mode, by definition.

But the api is trying to simulate immediate mode using DOM

Re: You don't need React: creating a minimal UI library in Vanilla JavaScript

#16

Post by pedro_movai » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 10:05 AM UTC

wild_egg wrote: post #7

> immediate mode You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. React most definitely falls under what would be called a "retained mode" of some sort. And the UI library described here is also.

I think the author is referring to immediate mode because of

UI=f(state)

Re: You don't need React: creating a minimal UI library in Vanilla JavaScript

#17

Post by afavour » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 10:07 AM UTC

bofadeez wrote: post #14

[flagged]

Framework, not language. And framework choice still matters.

Re: You don't need React: creating a minimal UI library in Vanilla JavaScript

#18

Post by inigyou » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 10:10 AM UTC

pedro_movai wrote: post #15

inigyou wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing in HTML is immediate mode. Any framework with a DOM is retained mode, by definition.

But the api is trying to simulate immediate mode using DOM

That's called an "abomination". The advantage of immediate mode is not storing a DOM. If you write immediate-mode code but it stores a DOM anyway then it's the worst of both worlds.

Re: You don't need React: creating a minimal UI library in Vanilla JavaScript

#19

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 10:17 AM UTC

bryanhogan wrote: post #10

I agree that React gets overused for many websites, but I'm not sure about this project over something like Astro. I built an Astro Starter that uses just CSS in a scalable way for simple websites. Content is written in Markdown / MDX files. Design tokens are set in var.css. Other stuff is defined in one config.ts file. Global styling is set though a few CSS files (Global, Reset, Var, Util, Markdown), components are…

[deleted]

Re: You don't need React: creating a minimal UI library in Vanilla JavaScript

#20

Post by afavour » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 10:20 AM UTC

I think React is way overused but every time you see a blog post with "replace it with this pet mini project instead" I groan because you know the reaction is going to be "what about X feature", and of course the mini framework doesn't do it.

I've found the perfect balance to be Astro with Preact. You will inevitably have some piece of functionality that's complex (say, a contact form) and you can lean into Preact for that. But for the vast majority of a content-heavy site you can just use Astro and skip the client-side bulk entirely.

STANDARD DISCLAIMER ANY TIME I COMMENT ON FRONT END DEV: your project may be different. A blog or a shopping site and have extremely different requirements to a full Gmail-style web app. There does not need to be a one size fits all answer.