JavaScript in 2017: You might (not) need a framework - David Vujic

JavaScript in 2017 is like "Yeah, now you need webpack, babel, npm, yarn, React ...". Redux? Relax. Developing a front end web project in 2017 can be a bit intimidating, especially when the home base is back end development.

In this session I will talk about & code JavaScript using old school methods and step-by-step add stuff like modules, Babel, ES 2017, ESLint & Webpack. Let's investigate the value added, how to keep it simple and some of the trade offs to be aware of. You'll know how to setup and develop an ECMAScript 2017 & React enabled web site, with automated build and real time syntax checking after this session. You might even have been transformed into a JavaScript hipster. Welcome!

NDC Conferences

[kipraymond]

It was an enlightening exercise. The point was David had to learn the purpose of these dependent libraries by justifying their existence first; understanding exactly what they do; and introducing them incrementally. He learned on an empirical basis, much more than if he had used those libraries merely because everyone else is using them. Building apps in Javascript may result in great user experiences, but it can also induce confusion, delirium, and migraines in newbie learners of these rapidly proliferating and rapidly obsolescing tools. Only by spending many hours in the trenches with these libraries can you overcome Crippling TMC Syndrome (too many choices) and attain a state of productivity.

[CaptainAardvaark]

I dunno about anyone else, but I find the dependency hell of modern web development nauseating. It feels like languages on top of languages on top of languages- how do you keep control of your code?

[kimichen]

JS feels like a needed evil when I try to bring technologies to my classroom. Nothing works but the browser but after knowing clean languages like Python, I just can't swallow JS no matter how much I want to. Thanks for your presentation. Now I understand why JS needs to be built this way and maybe give me some hope to try again. 😀🙏🙇

[threeone]

I work for myself so I'm allowed to program vanilla.js all day.
Don't hate the player, hate the game.

[WillKriski]

So true. When something goes wrong you realize then you don't understand what each module is doing.

[MrVankog]

As someone who is currently learning Javascript, I feel completely overwhelmed by the framework and Ecmascript versioning hell. You can't really do anything with plain js at all beside simple algorithmic computation. This video really, really helped me in understanding what these common frameworks are there for.
E. g. I had some jasmine tests with require syntax. node can't run it yet. Jasmine standalone can run it fine, tough. JsWebdriver with jasmine can't. Karma can't, because all the browsers I tested can't. (just today Chrome 61 finally can...) So running jasmine karma can't neither. It requires extra setup to initialize require.js. But this led to errors from require.js that needed another require syntax instead. So finally, with lots of effort, days of frustration and code changes it works. And then I found out about jest. Installed it, gave it some minor configuration, and it works out of the box with the original require syntax in the jasmine specs...
It was a frustrating odyssey deluxe with lots of plugins that turned out to be outdated, interoperability problems, versioning issues etc.
Basically I expirienced Javascript as hell. And I'm really tempted to throw it and learn C# or Go instead...

[projectivemotion]

Good video. I remember back when people used to think javascript was java.

[kefleyohannes]

Watch on speed 1.5x because the speech is so slow!

[rajashahja]

he is very intelligent, a blessing for typical JS professionals

[griffadev]

A good video though, it was unfortunate that the speaker turned to React, whilst people say React is just a library, i find this a falsehood. I've often found Reacts lifecycle and Virtual DOM causes a lot of interoperability issues, when trying to share components across projects. A true component model should allow you share modules across projects, and swap pieces in and out.
Think this isn't true, try using Vanilla Custom Elements and the new Shadow DOM spec into some of your components, and use it with React. You will encounter issues, leading me to strongly believe React isn't what its advertised as, a UI Library, it's an opinionated Component Framework that forces you to write and expose components the way that it wants you to write and expose components. It would be cool to see how the Custom Elements spec influences projects like this, where you progressively enhance your architecture, where you can write code that has zero run time dependencies, and just uses the browser Platform features, and build process to transpile and polyfill when features arent available

[unknotmiguel]

Just didnt explain how the browser will select each compiler.js according to browser version? Is that automatically or what...

[KANJICODER]

JQuery is a great language for writing HTML in a vertical monitor or otherwise column-limit friendly way. Super long CDN url? No problem, break it up into sub strings.

[thomaslang]

you built a widget, but without being able to put two of them on a page then its not really a component is it. have you thought how you would accomplish this. in other words, have the widgets click events not occupy the globab namespace

[Mark-qciu]

I thought this was going to be a joke about how awful the state of js libraries are, but the punchline never came. This was an advertisement for how ridiculous things have become. I could do what he's trying to do in his example in about 5 total lines using basic javascript requiring no additional libraries or packages.

[brubrunda]

User should be able to make search and accordingly product should be displayed.
Now it’s up to you how you display. Use any front-end frameworks you like. Sir please send how to do this code

[nacancanyokamziku]

so he used +- 5 tools (meaning couple of dozens of thousands of files downloaded via npm) to achieve laughably trivial functinality; what tools would he recommend for building os of an space shuttle? brain maybe?

[pamelagerber]

just trying to understand this web site. pretty hard but I'm trying.

[alexandertsvetkov]

I dunno... personally, can't say that the message came across. I second the idea of learning all frontend-related tools one by one instead of relying on "quickstart" templates or scaffolders like create-react-app. But I still don't see how this is suitable for 45 minutes talk.

[maskman]

so many libraries, frameworks, all emphasize that pure javascript dom is pain in the ass, and jquery is not enough, react, angular, vue, amber and on and when it comes to mobile, jquery mobile, bootstrap, ionic native, react native, nativescript, framework7 and on and on... from es5 to es6 now es8, all achieve the same have to learn new technology each and every single day if we go with javascript, html,