What is Vanilla JavaScript?

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What is Vanilla JavaScript?

Vanilla JavaScript is a pure or plain JavaScript framework used by developers to build websites without using additional libraries such as jQuery. It involves writing only JavaScript code without the aid of libraries or frameworks that have already been written. It is used on many popular websites like Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo, Wikipedia, Twitter, Amazon, LinkedIn, and many others. 

Many people still do not believe that the number of websites that use it is far greater than the number of websites that use JQuery. Vanilla JavaScript can offer you better web performance, an easy-to-use development environment, and ease of working with frameworks compared to other powerful frameworks. 

Other than these benefits, there are some others you should look into. In this article, you will learn more details about the framework and its pros and cons.

Why Should You Learn and Use It?

VanillaJS can offer several more advantages than JavaScript libraries, which can be helpful to developers. Below are the reasons why you should use it and why it is a better choice for web development. It includes:

  • Better Web Performance
  • User Experience
  • Easier to Work With Frameworks
  • Flexibility
  • Secured and Future Proof

1. Better Web Performance

The better web performance VanillaJS offers when compared to many other frameworks and libraries is one of the main reasons why you should make use of it in your projects. With fewer resources and a lighter codebase, it performs better. VanillaJS requires you to compile and parse the code, whereas HTML and CSS files are only available for use once downloaded. Compared to HTML and CSS files of the same size, a 50kb JS file has a much greater impact on web performance.

2. User Experience

It is a simple language that is easier to learn and use, especially for beginners, and it is also user friendly. The developers can effortlessly start programming an application or website, as they only need to open the text editor and can begin coding. They don’t have to go through the troublesome steps like npm install, compilation steps, no build, etc.  This saves a lot of time and effort and allows developers to focus on the important tasks at hand. It also allows them to work quickly and efficiently, delivering the project faster.

3. Easier to Work With Frameworks

Learning and using VanillaJS can make the developers comfortable while using the other frameworks as well. You can get a lot of assumed knowledge in the documentation, and you can understand how all the tools work, which makes it easier for the developers to learn and work on it. Once you are comfortable working on it, you can get your coding done much quicker, even when working in other frameworks.

4. Flexibility

It enables the developers to write code that is customised to their unique requirements, increasing its flexibility and adaptability. As said earlier, it does not have any additional libraries like JavaScript libraries, which are designed to work in specific ways and can be limited in their flexibility. 

5. Secured and Future Proof

Vanilla JavaScript is more secure because developers can create custom code for each application rather than relying on potentially insecure third-party code. Therefore, developers can create applications without any flaws that hackers could use against them. Because it is constantly updated and compatible with new browser versions, it is also future-proof.

Why Should You Not Use It?

As you read through the various benefits of VanillaJS, here are some of the reasons why you should not use it in your projects. Like any other language, it is necessary to know about the disadvantages along with the advantages. Read more.

  • Client-side security is not that great in VanillaJS because the code is viewable on the client side, which means anyone can modify the code and use it as a weapon or tool for malicious purposes.
  • It also lacks a debugging facility.
  • The lack of a debugging facility in JavaScript is another significant drawback.
  • It cannot be used for network-based applications because no such support is available.
  • Additionally, it does not support some features, such as multiprocessors and multithreading.
  • Additionally, it does not permit reading or writing files due to security concerns.

So, you would have learned more about VanillaJS in the article. The term actually gained popularity after Eric Wastl made its website in 2012 as a joke. The website aims to draw attention to the fact that you can frequently use just plain Javascript. 

Learning “vanilla” JavaScript entails learning the basics of the language. In order to speed up and simplify the writing of code, frameworks and libraries help abstract and simplify some JavaScript features. However, understanding the fundamentals of JS will help you use new frameworks more quickly and determine whether a framework is even necessary in the long run. So make use of the information here to choose the right path in web development.

Interesting Links:

Vanilla JS more info

Comparison of JavaScript-based web frameworks

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