Framework Paralysis to NuxtJS
Navigating the big sea
Roughly two years ago I decided to take NuxtJS (aka Nuxt) for a spin on a pro bono community project. I had no preconceptions about Nuxt other than it made component-based development easy to get into. My aim has always been modularity, leveraging components and plugins as standard for both code reuse and consistency.
Pathways Anew
I took the plunge and moved from an Angular world, so there were indeed a few uphill marches to exercise the singsong of unparalleled developer joy. Prior to diving into Angular, or what was actually AngularJS at the time, I was really only emerging from backend land into the sheer overwhelming world of frontend development. Prior to that was the dark times: the jQuery years.
So What is Nuxt?
NuxtJS homepage: https://nuxtjs.org/
Nuxt is a meta-framework built on top of VueJS. Indeed, if you are unfamiliar with the frontend landscape at present, you may be gasping at just how many levels of abstraction there are to things these days, but the intentions are pure.
Nuxt offers a further level of simplicity on top of VueJS. After existing in the ecosystem for some time, none of the coveted features really feel like unnecessary bells and whistles. In fact, they shine as well-thought-out solutions to common problems built by developers, for developers. The most brilliant of these is the file-based routing system which feels incredibly natural to use compared to code-based routing configurations.
That is only the tip of the iceberg. Features like the SSR capabilities really take the sting out of many deployment configuration battles that I have experienced trying to achieve the same within an Angular context.
Rule of First Best Last
The concept of Nuxt is not exactly the newest thing off the shelf. In my view and experience it does a few things well enough to stand out, primarily because it does not try to be everything for everyone.
The old saying of being the first or the best applies to things beyond business, and it really often drives a hard meaning in software. To do something first usually means making a few critical implementation judgments along the way, where the second in line learns, learns, learns and learns some more. It is unfortunate when the firsts are chastised for these judgments as if we are all born with 20/20 foresight. Give some love for the firsts of the world.
NuxtJS is not the first, likely not the best as many of these things are subjective, and I doubt it will be the last.
The following are a few alternatives to consider:
- NextJS (https://nextjs.org/) is to React what NuxtJS is to Vue
- Angular (https://angular.io/) Angular (ex AngularJS) is an all-in-one web development framework.
Why Use A Framework
Because your own custom "pure JavaScript DIY framework" code is likely not as good as you believe it is, and almost certainly not maintainable for others.
If you are only building a few sections, forego using a framework. Continue to challenge this until it ceases to make sense. If you then decide after 20,000 lines of vanilla JS to stop and terminate your path of obstinacy, hindsight will be there smiling.
Whether to use meta-frameworks or not depends on the project. These are really just feature sets on top of otherwise stable frameworks.
Nuxt, Next, Angular, what have you, all reduce the amount of grind involved to build beautiful and dynamic web interfaces. These teams hold themselves to a high bar and usually open source their projects. If you do not realise why this is one of the most awesome things ever, I urge you to consider that it was only a few hundred years ago that information, quality education and knowledge was only available to a privileged few, and most people could not read or write effectively.