The Forgotten Joy of `node app.js`
The article reflects on how modern frontend development has lost the simplicity of creating apps with a single file and command, like 'node app.js', due to the rise of complex project scaffolds. It argues that this shift increases the cost of small experiments, hinders teaching, and complicates deployment and AI-assisted development. The author calls for frameworks to support single-file apps again, both for development and deployment, to restore agility and accessibility. This simplicity, common in backend development, should be possible in frontend tooling too.
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try { if(localStorage) { let currentUser = localStorage.getItem('current_user'); if (currentUser) { currentUser = JSON.parse(currentUser); if (currentUser.id === 1115191) { document.getElementById('article-show-container').classList.add('current-user-is-article-author'); } } } } catch (e) { console.error(e); } Viktor Lázár Posted on Apr 28 The Forgotten Joy of `node app.js` #discuss #javascript #node #webdev There used to be a moment, ten years or so ago, when you could go from "I have an idea" to "I have a running web server" in about thirty seconds: // app.js const express = require('express') const app = express() app.get('/', (req, res) => res.send('hello')) app.listen(3000) Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode node app.js Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode That was the…
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