Mithril.js: small (8.96 KB gzipped) modern client-side JavaScript framework | Hacker News Reader

Mithril.js: small (8.96 KB gzipped) modern client-side JavaScript framework

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38 pointsBrysonbw15 comments

There seem to be so many of these. I really wonder who is the audience for these. Who needs a framework, is incredibly sensitive to bundle size, and doesn't mind using a bespoke framework with no ecosystem?

I'm just amazed that saving 100kb or whatever could outweigh the other factors.

There seem to be so many of these

I re-evaluate most of them once in a while and there's a lot of looking alive but basically dead and bug-ridden ones. And some bugs are so trivial that it shows that no one uses them seriously.

Mithril is absolutely stable and mature compared to these other hyperscript-ish libs.

Who

Me. I want full control over my data and not outsource it to a lib that will dictate the shape of it. Mithril only does rendering cycles while being completely data-agnostic. It's basically react without its "functional" abracadabra.

That's a great explanation, thanks.

I still use hscrpt, and it's only 333 bytes!

https://github.com/dominictarr/hscrpt

Mithril is fantastic. A much better library for frontend development compared to react vue et al. Simpler and far more performant code.

I used Mithril in 2015 for a very complex form view in an otherwise vanilla jquery page. It saved the project. React was also a new player at the time, but for some reason I wasn't able to include it with the "require.js" bundler (I guess the module format was not standardized yet). I actually liked Mithril, sent them some bug reports.

Same experience from pretty much the same time.

I ran a relatively small web consultancy at the time and we were in the middle of trying to specialise in the new, more complex things people were starting to build on the web.

We had the potential to land a contract with what would be by far the biggest client we'd ever had. But they wanted us to test the water with us first by having us build a series of obnoxiously complex manufacturing cost calculators for one of their sales-focused web sites.

It was all complex rules and interdependent inputs/display values. And because it could all be hard coded it was the perfect candidate for a client-side only site (I don't think we even called them SPAs yet)

I remember thinking jQuery UI didn't feel like the right tool and React was super clunky back then so I reached for Mithril and had a great experience.

The declarative approach, automatic updates to the DOM etc that we take for granted now felt like magic back then. Being able to describe the data model/logic in a relatively abstract way and then watch as the UI changed in response was pretty cool.

Did they ever tell you why you didn’t land the contract?

I’d bet the customer’s CTO/tech lead took one look at the codebase and was instantly discouraged because some novel and unknown frontend framework was used.

yeah (as became a theme really until we were acquired and it was no longer an issue) we didn't get past procurement as we failed some sort of due diligence check(s). Can't actually remember what it was specifically in that case, lacking some certification or weren't financially stable enough or some rubbish like that

Mithril is a relatively older framework and its creator lhorie comments on HN occasionally.

This is interesting, the code makes me want to euthanize myself, but it's cool to see.

On the contrary I like hyperscript much more than the <>{} soup. But jsx is just a source transform, you can have it with mithril too. https://mithril.js.org/jsx.html

It's kind of wild to me that I remember deciding between mithril and backbone, and now I'm still seeing it on the hn front-page (edit: oop. 2nd page) in 2025.

The longevity is real.

I'm working on a personal project with this right now. Closure components FTW.

No build step needed ? I like that.

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