1 Hello Vanilla Web
This chapter covers
- What’s Vanilla Web
- Analyzing the architecture and technologies used
- Learning what’s different compared with using frameworks
- Growing your developer skills when learning Vanilla Web
- Working with the main challenges and risks
Let’s say you have a new project in mind, and you’re in that first moment when you want to decide on the stack you’ll be using before even having full details of the problem to solve. Choosing a technology stack without first understanding the requirements is a mistake, often described by the adage: 'If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.'
Now, replace "hammer" with "React": "When you only know React, everything looks like something React can solve." You can replace React with any other frontend library or framework stack: Angular, Vue, Next.js, you name it. In the past few years, many developers - particularly new ones - have been heavily invested in one library or framework, often overlooking the underlying technology or the basics of creating a basic web app without it.
Libraries and frameworks are just tools in your toolbox. There will be many projects in which using a library can be a good idea; we will not deny that in this book. However, many projects don’t require a library, and adding one can create more problems in terms of security, performance, and maintainability.