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Re:Why is modern web development so complicated? by dsego on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @07:00PM (#20640100)
It's silly to do a round trip to the server just to change some local UI state, right?
Re:Why is modern web development so complicated? by manigandham on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @08:30PM (#20640700)
Not really, this kind of thinking is exactly what led to the client-side JS framework mess.

Round trips are just fine. Browsers are smart, servers are fast, and HTML compresses well. The site you're reading right now (HN) requires a reload. Stackoverflow requires a reload. Neither are slow to use.

If your page is really that complicated, then I suggest Vue or Preact which are efficient and designed to progressively enhance pages instead of rebuilding everything in JS.

Re:Why is modern web development so complicated? by Nyandalized on Friday August 09, 2019 @03:58AM (#20652169)
Connectivity is not always available, and errors retrieving it may mean you have to re-enter everything. Being able to "navigate" the site without the dinosaur is a tremendous boon for end users. You wouldn't be able to send anything without a connection, but you could buffer it for an opportune moment.

Sites like HN and Stackoverflow have a vastly different audience than most bread-and-butter sites, and tackle different kind of issues.

Re:Why is modern web development so complicated? by manigandham on Friday August 09, 2019 @05:19AM (#20652615)
Most bread-and-butter sites are just fine as server-side rendered page. Large client-side frameworks reimplementing the browser and server functionality should be rare, when the situation actually calls for it.

If you really need a offline site then a simple service worker is all you need to cache the pages, not a big JS app.

Re:Why is modern web development so complicated? by Nyandalized on Monday August 12, 2019 @03:27AM (#20673247)
"Big JS app"'s aren't that big if done correctly. The entirety of Angular8 fits into ~170KB, less than some thumbnails.

You can write bad apps in any language and environment, similarly a site/app is not bad just because it's done in Y.

Re:Why is modern web development so complicated? by Roboprog on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @11:28PM (#20641594)
Compression over HTTPS can be problematic, as it makes the key easier to crack.

I would like to trade out AngularJS for Vue someday, though.

Re:Why is modern web development so complicated? by asark on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @10:44PM (#20641368)
In theory, yes. In practice, by the time you get your whole web-app game on, the full round trip is often at least as fast, and frequently faster.
Re:Why is modern web development so complicated? by cutler on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @10:39PM (#20641334)
Don't underestimate pjax/turbolinks as a first approach. This way you get to render on the server without refreshing the whole page. For most business websites this is more than enough to keep rendering snappy.
Re:Why is modern web development so complicated? by winrid on Thursday August 08, 2019 @01:35AM (#20642111)
Depends on the app. In some cases it results in a much simpler and easier to maintain environment (ie, Larvel or Symphony will do this better than Angular...)