I'm incredibly vocal about my disdain for client-side JavaScript frameworks. This is because I strongly believe in Resilient Web Design and The Lean Web, and I'm passionate about A11Y. Modern JavaScript tooling tends to make these things more difficult. But I must also recognize that frameworks have their place in the right context.
My friend Robert Young tipped me off to a great new series in the MDN Web Docs called Understanding client-side JavaScript frameworks. It addresses the following questions:
- Why should I use a framework? What problems do they solve for me?
- What questions should I ask when trying to choose a framework? Do I even need to use a framework?
- What features do frameworks have? How do they work in general, and how do frameworks' implementations of these features differ?
- How do they relate to "vanilla" JavaScript or HTML?
I won't be changing my principles any time soon, but it's giving me more context and helping me keep an open mind. Check out the new series in the MDN Web Docs: