Software development topics I've changed my mind on

>Frontend development is a nightmare world of Kafkaesque awfulness I no longer enjoy

As a backend/systems engineer I recently had to look at a React + Typescript + MobX app from 2019/2020. It is true that that some things, especially the webpack config and Typescript loading, were outdated but the overall design and architecture of the app was still understandable and modern. With some help from ChatGPT it took very little time to migrate to Vite and update dependencies. By 2019/2020 React Hooks had already been out for some time but there were still some class components in the app. They were easily migrated to functional components + Hooks using ChatGPT.

5-10 years ago I was just skipping Webpack and Babel, and raw-dogging React.createElement in personal projects in order to be happy and maintain sanity. At work I would just push hard for alternatives like Parcel or Brunch.

Now, with Vite I just don't mind the toolchain anymore, it just helps me instead of getting in the way. Similar to Go.

All the problems I have now are of my own creation.

dumb question from someone re-entering the FE world: why is Vite necessary?

My understanding is it basically strips the type information using Go (IIRC) where your typechecking is then a separate step (without transpilation). So feedback is more rapid.

But, with tools like Deno or ts-node, where the type checking is apparently also off the hot path, why does Vite still exist?

Is it because it connects file monitoring with a dev server? Because it also somehow works non-js artifacts like CSS and image imports?

Ultimately, I've found the world of Vite + ESNext imports to be a world of frustration and pain. And, I really want to like Deno, and a lot of it is magical, but ultimately, there's just some splitbrain stuff going on with Deno's concept of a monorepo and their inability to commit to their public projects (e.g. Fresh) leaves me concerned it's risky to build on top of.

(ok, that turned into a rant, but there are some questions in there.)