No Build

The javascript ecosystem is creative and full of energy. There are new frameworks popping almost every month.

That is great for exploration and to promote new ideas. It is not ideal when you have to maintain javascript focused applications over the years.

I have been struggling updating dependencies. And keeping builds fast enough is an ongoing challenge.

I see hope with modern frameworks and tools. Rust, Go, Zig have contributed a lot to speeding up the JS world.

There is something even greater on the horizon. No build tools at all.

htmx does not have a build step and 0 dependencies. There are great examples on how to do things with vanilla js. Svelte moves away from typescript in favor of jsdoc to remove the need for additional tooling.

It is a trend I want to see succeed in the enterprise world.

Without a build step:

• your build will never be slow
• your changes are reflected instantly
• if it runs today, your code will run forever (JavaScript is forward compatible)
• come back in 10 years and surprise!!! There is nothing to install. Everything works.