It just works

Today I opened a 10-year old vanilla-js app — and it just worked! No node/npm woes …

This kind of thing continues to be one of my biggest attractions to a more browser-native experience.

I have so many projects I built just a few years ago using Gulp that are littered with broken dependencies. If I need to make any updates, I first need to patch a bunch of out-of-date NPM dependencies.

Often, that involves replacing at least one or two that have been deprecated, or rewriting my build setup because of a breaking major version change.

That’s not to say I don’t use any build tools. I do. But I built my own to be as close-to-the-metal as possible.

The goal with vanilla JS or the lean web is not to completely shun tooling or write every line of code yourself.

It’s to lean heavily on what the platform gives you out of the box as a strategy for delivery a better user experience with fewer long-term maintenance issues.

Where most people look at robust tooling as an asset, I often see a long-term liability that creates more headaches down the road.