A few years ago I rebuilt a 3D model checker for the building industry and intentionally avoided a full frontend framework to keep the UI performant.
I wrote a small internal mini-framework to follow the MVC pattern and Web Components for reusable elements. I also used external libraries: three.js for 3D rendering, sql.js for handling the 3d's models meta-data in a performant way, and @tanstack/virtual for virtualizing large lists and tables.
The biggest benefit was finer control over performance. The main downside was a less comfortable developer experience — it’s harder to find polished, ready-made vanilla-JavaScript components, so you implement more yourself.
That's cool! This resonates a lot with what I'm up to. I'm using SVGs as UI pieces and wiring them to composable logic blocks so to make things interactive without having to write code.
/!\ Self-promo
I'm working on Breadboard[0]. Here an interactive demo[1] – no signup required –.
I'm working on a tool[0] to address how hard it is for non-technical people to understand the text-based code from vibe coding tools.
Our approach is to make the complexity more readable by using three simple block types to represent logic, data, and UI, which are connected by cables – a bit like wiring up components on an electronics breadboard –.
Instead of spitting out a wall of code, the AI generates these visual blocks and makes the right connections between them. The ultimate goal is to make the output from LLM more accessible and actionable for everyone, not just developers.
