The Digital Press

This article presents "Writing JavaScript Views the Hard Way," a pattern for building UI views in plain JavaScript without frameworks like React or Vue, focusing on direct, imperative coding with strict conventions to maintain performance and clarity.

Why it matters: It offers a zero-dependency approach that maximizes performance and maintainability, avoiding common framework upgrade and complexity issues.

The big picture: The pattern enforces a structured view architecture with clear sections for DOM variables, state, and updates, making imperative code more manageable and portable.

The other side: Some developers worry that relying on conventions without enforced APIs risks inconsistent codebases and prefer frameworks or Web Components for predictability.

Commenters say: Opinions vary—some praise the pattern’s simplicity and control, others caution about potential maintainability challenges and suggest alternatives like Web Components or minimal frameworks.