HTML, JavaScript, and CSS
That's all there is to it.
I thought about using the following frameworks:
But I did not actually need any of them to make this site look decent.
What I've Learned
Of course, most people build simple websites like these to learn a new technology or framework, not to use an optimal tool. That's actually why I hosted this website on AWS.
Building this website with truly bare-bones technologies has made me appreciate why these web frameworks have emerged.
- Writing JavaScript to manipulate the DOM works just fine but lacks the readability and composability that many JavaScript frameworks bring to the table.
- Similarly, CSS styling (inline/stylesheet) works at the small scale. However, with styles being completely divorced from the HTML itself, much is left to be desired.
- Reusing HTML, styles, and JavaScript feels extremely fragile. Innovative type-safe, optimized, and composable solutions definitely have their place in the web.
- You can be efficient with HTML, JS, and CSS. My iteration speed on on this site versus other React.js/MDX blogs I have worked on is the same if not faster. While this may be a testament to my lack of JavaScript experience, I think people conclude too early that their task is beyond the technologies that form the foundation of the web today.