TL;DR: I worked through my first Vue boilerplate setup; as a result of the experience, I’m going to start a blog mini series where I write about testing various npm packages.

Which Framework?

Okay, so I want to learn a JS frontend framework. I’ve got many years of experience with static HTML sites; I’ve also got a solid theoretical understanding of many frameworks out there. I haven’t made up my mind as to which framework I want to devote my time into becoming deeply familiar with. Over the next few weeks I’ll try out several frameworks with first hand examples and dive into some simple case uses. Vue seems to have the simplest and easiest point of entry, which is why I’m starting with it.

First Thoughts on Vue

After seven or so hours of tinkering with Vue, I decided that it’s probably not going to be the framework for me. It has some neat built-in features, especially some that lend themselves to accomplish elaborate CSS transitions. As it’s name implies, the framework is strongly opinionated towards visual feature. My first impressions are that it isn’t the most optimal framework for data implementations.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the constructor method and the JSON-like way of holding app data seems to be a bit rigid and repetitive. I will give it another try in the future, but for now I will move on to the next package.

Diving into npm: 7 Days of require(’___‘); Series

Trying out Vue for those 7-odd hours was a great way to make an informed decision about the tools I want to become familiar with. However, devoting 7 hours to multiple frameworks (or packages) on a rolling basis is quite a taxing and ambitious endeavor. Instead, I want to develop a daily routine of face-to-face (face-to-screen?) time with the nuts and bolts of npm.

Over the next few weeks I will pick a new npm package at the start of every week. I will try to spend an hour every day working on some aspect of this package. At the end of the week I’ll make some judgment calls whether I’ll keep the package in my toolbox or I’ll put it back in the seemingly endless npm shelf.

Up next:

{% highlight bash %} npm install –save react react-dom {% endhighlight %}