[Trasmatta]

No, the argument has never been "replace all JS with static HTML/CSS". The argument is "JavaScript frontends are becoming unnecessarily bloated, slow, and complicated, and we can do better". Solutions like the one Basecamp is proposing with Hotwire include pushing as much rendering logic as possible to the server, where you're using a language like Ruby for logic. Nobody thinks you can just remove all logic from a web application unless it's literally just static content.

And even with Hotwire, you're not getting rid of JavaScript entirely. You can write it with Stimulus. The idea is just that frontend web development has become a mess, and it's possible to simplify things.

> there's nothing inherently bad about it

Disagree.

[qudat]

“Bloated.” This is actually the opposite. Go into a language like python and install numpy (30mb) and then come back to complain to me about a 2mb js bundle.

This argument is so bogus if you look at alternative language dependency sizes.

[spentu]

While there are issues within Python side, I think it is quite unfair to use numpy as an example.

My reasoning is that the numpy project is meant for scientific and prototyping purposes, but many times people are using it as an shortcut and include the whole thing into their project.

That being said, the quality in these packages does vary depending on who developed them. But I think this is a problem that exists with all languages where publishing packages is relatively straightforward.

[minitech]

numpy doesn’t get sent to the client if you use it on the server.

> JavaScript frontends are becoming unnecessarily bloated