Show HN: Elemental – simple front ends in plain JavaScript

github.com

6 pointsfynyky3 comments

This is a personal library I’ve been using for a while. I really don’t like how much frontend frameworks require you to invest in them. You have to learn funky domain specific languages, and magic render lifecycles just to debug anything. I mostly just want to create and append elements with better ergonomics. So that’s what I built.

The syntax lets you build a DOM declaratively with plain nested functions. This lets you define logic and views cleanly in a single structure, instead of reasoning across separate UI layout and UI logic. This also means you can use bit by bit instead of having to overhaul a whole project to a framework.

I hope you find it as useful as I have! Would love to get feedback from having fresh eyes on it.

What’s the difference between this and `React.createElement`?

The big difference is that you don't have to use all of React! Plus with the ability to run child functions, you can inject arbitrary logic inline without having to break the declarative structure.

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