What is “Vanilla JavaScript”?
Vanilla script refers to pure JavaScript (or plain JavaScript) without any additional libraries. The term is sometimes used as a joke that “nowadays a number of things can also be accomplished without the use of any additional JavaScript libraries”.
Vanilla script is one of the lightest frameworks ever. It is very basic and straightforward to learn and use. You can create significant and influential applications and websites using vanilla script.
The team of developers that created vanilla JavaScript is continuously working on it to improve it and make it more useful for web-developers.
Let’s have a look at some big websites that are currently using vanilla JavaScript:
The following websites are currently using vanilla JavaScript, and these websites are also mentioned on the vanilla JavaScript home page.
- YouTube
- Yahoo
- Wikipedia
- Windows Live
- Amazon
- MSN
- eBay
- Microsoft
- Tumblr
- Apple
- PayPal
- Netflix
- Stack Overflow
Moreover, most people may find it difficult to believe that the number of websites that use vanilla JavaScript is much higher than the number of websites that use JQuery.
Why should you learn vanilla JS?
Beginners often ask why they should learn vanilla Java and use it when there are so many other powerful frameworks and libraries available.
There are several reasons why we choose vanilla js to learn and use in our projects. Here we are discussing the following three main and most important of them.
1. Web-performance
As it is the most expensive and important component of the front-end stack, this is significantly better for web performance than many other frameworks and libraries. The vanilla JS code must be compiled and parsed before it can be used, in contrast to HTML and CSS files, which can be used only after they have been downloaded. A JS file of 50kb has a much greater impact on web performance than a similar-sized HTML or CSS file.
2. User Experience
When developing an application or website using JavaScript, a developer only needs to open the text editor and begin coding. Developers are not required to perform troublesome steps such as npm install, compilation steps, and no build.
3. It makes working with frameworks easier as well
Should any developer still wish to use any of the other frameworks, it makes working with them more comfortable. As we are all aware of how hard it is to get started with a framework.
In the documentation, there is a lot of assumed knowledge, and understanding how all of the tools work makes learning quite easy. Beginners with little knowledge try to learn a framework, no wonder they get stuck somewhere after some time. They then stop focusing on the fundamentals of Vanilla JS. Once they are comfortable with Vanilla JS, they begin learning frameworks, and the learning process is much faster this time around.
Some other important advantages of the vanilla script are as follows:
- Interoperability:-
JavaScript can be inserted into any web page, but not in another scripting language. For example PHP
As it supports other languages such as PHP and Pearl, it can also be used in a variety of applications.
- Server Load:-
Since JavaScript is executed on the client side, the overall demand for server resources is reduced. Also, the simple application doesn’t require server involvement.
- Rich interfaces:-
JavaScript provides us with the ability to create excellent quality features such as drag and drop, and components such as sliders. This can impact the consumers experience on the website in a positive way.
