[HN Gopher] Show HN: Vertex.js - A 1kloc SPA Framework
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Show HN: Vertex.js - A 1kloc SPA Framework
Vertex is a 1kloc SPA framework containing everything you need from
React, Ractive-Load and jQuery while still being jQuery-compatible.
vertex.js is a single, self-contained file with no build step and
no dependencies. Also exhibits the curious quality of being faster
than over a decade of engineering at Facebook in some cases:
https://files.catbox.moe/sqei0d.png
Author : LukeB42
Score : 27 points
Date : 2026-03-01 11:05 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (lukeb42.github.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (lukeb42.github.io)
| DiabloD3 wrote:
| I was going to say that font is unreadable, but its Courier New.
|
| By my own extensive testing[1], it's optimal at minimum 18px,
| you're at 13.5px.
|
| [1]:
| https://github.com/Diablo-D3/dotfiles/blob/master/fontsizes....
| LukeB42 wrote:
| Beauty /is/ in the eye of the beholder. The rationale /here/ is
| that the more text in a page the more code you'll fit in your
| head the more you'll get done, the more confidence you'll have
| and again the more you'll achieve.
| DiabloD3 wrote:
| Zero code is in your head if you can't read it.
|
| The predominant monitor in existence is your average 24"
| 1080p monitor, sat at, on average, 32" away from the head.
| The average person has worse than 20/20 vision.
|
| You must test your website in such conditions and make sure
| it is readable, and also make sure it meets at minimum WCAG
| A, but preferably the whole way to AAA if possible.
| LukeB42 wrote:
| Thank you but the predominant monitor's probably a
| smartphone. The average professional is probably using a 4k
| monitor at the moment.
|
| Everything in the free documentation I've provided you out
| of my own time and money that you're referring to exists in
| relation to the other elements in that page, so to get the
| experience you're after simply ctrl+scroll and change the
| CSS zoom level like the riot at parties that you could be
| or catch up with circa 2013-2014 and invest in a 4k display
| please.
| rschristian wrote:
| "Zoom in" or "buy a different monitor" is not an
| appropriate response to people bringing up the plethora
| of objective & subjective a11y issues on the page.
|
| If you really don't care about providing an accessible
| experience, try this: no one will use the tool if they
| can't read the docs. With my monitor and eyesight, it's
| entirely illegible.
| LukeB42 wrote:
| Name one objective issue with what I've provided your
| ungrateful self for free and do it in HN's 12pt again
| because I need a laugh.
| turtlebits wrote:
| OP has a valid point. On my Mac, it's unreadable without
| zooming in. I immediately left the page.
| LukeB42 wrote:
| Thanks for the valuable feedback. I've added a mediaquery
| for your use case. This should be more legible now:
| https://lukeb42.github.io/vertex-manual.html
|
| Send me a screenshot via https://catbox.moe if it's
| unreadable and I'll get this done and dusted before leaving
| the thread. Thanks.
| chrismorgan wrote:
| Courier New is a bad font that no one should choose to use. In
| typical font-weight terms, where Regular _should_ be 400, it's
| 200-250, because it was improperly digitised, not taking ink
| bleed into account. Windows put some hacks into ClearType to
| make it render a _little_ less badly, but they're not
| dependable these days.
|
| ("Courier", as provided by macOS, is fine. But Courier New is
| irredeemably bad.)
|
| Concerning font-family declarations, if you're doing something
| like `"Courier New", Courier, monospace`--please just write
| `monospace`.
|
| (I'm not going to address the font size.)
| ricardobeat wrote:
| It renders terribly on sizes below ~14px, even on a Retina
| display. No anti-aliasing setting can save it.
|
| A modern typeface like IBM Plex Mono [1] or Office Code Pro
| [2] that offers more weights and can still render nicely at
| 10px size would be a better choice, maintaining the same
| aesthetic.
|
| [1] https://fonts.google.com/specimen/IBM+Plex+Mono
|
| [2] https://open-foundry.com/fonts/office-code-pro
| 6r17 wrote:
| 1kloc is a bit abstract ; it seems you are in a great position to
| give a true bundled weight ; preact is about 3kb which is my fav
| for years - good job for the effort and results !
| LukeB42 wrote:
| 9kb (minifier+brotli)
|
| We could remove 3kb by removing the router but that's not gonna
| happen. You're more than welcome to minify+brotli it yourself
| if you use vertex.js in production.
| ricardobeat wrote:
| The library is actually ~1400 lines of code, and 51KB in size.
| Not very slim by JS framework standards, so focusing on that
| for the headline feels misleading.
| jaen wrote:
| Huh, interesting... why have both React components and Mustache-
| style templates in the same framework? They perform the same
| function?
|
| What's the use case for mixing them?
| LukeB42 wrote:
| React components might eventually be removed in favor of making
| the templating system as fast and as elegant as possible but
| for the time being they provide flexibility.
|
| You can read https://lukeb42.github.io/vertex-interop.html for
| more info.
| hirako2000 wrote:
| A bit surprised to see a new framework boasting to ship as UMD.
| Are developers still using commonjs? I'm sure some continue to
| CDN inject libraries. But even then ESM is well supported.
| LukeB42 wrote:
| Would you prefer to see ESM or neither?
| leptons wrote:
| >Are developers still using commonjs?
|
| Yes, and every other flavor too. "Developers" isn't a single
| hive-mind entity, and there are many different purposes for
| javascript, and many different kinds of systems where
| javascript can be used.
| karmakaze wrote:
| Annoyingly there's already a framework called Vert.x for JVM but
| there's also Vert.x Node.js
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(page generated 2026-03-01 23:01 UTC)