The Irony at 2500 LOC

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by codeporn

As a Vue developer who spent real money on two conventions and three paid courses, I never expected to write this article. I certainly didn’t expect to question everything I’ve learned about modern web development. But here I am, staring at 2,558 lines of JavaScript that might have just made my expertise obsolete.

The Setup: A Vue Expert Encounters Juris

Last week, I stumbled across Juris—a framework claiming to be “The only Non-Blocking Reactive Framework for JavaScript.” My initial reaction was predictable: Another framework trying to solve problems that Vue already solved. I’ve seen this pattern before. New frameworks appear, make bold claims, then fade into obscurity when developers realize the established solutions are battle-tested and mature.

I was wrong. Catastrophically wrong.

The Irony Unveils Itself

Here’s the irony that haunts me: 2,558 lines of code in Juris accomplish what takes hundreds of thousands of lines across Vue’s ecosystem.

Let me put this in perspective:

• Vue 3 core: ~20,000 lines
• Vue Router: ~3,000 lines
• Pinia/Vuex: ~1,000 lines
• Build tools (Vite, etc.): ~20,000+ lines
• Component libraries: Hundreds of thousands of lines

Total ecosystem: Well over 40,000 lines of code to build what Juris does in 2,558 lines.

But the real irony? Juris outperforms all of it.

The Trading App That Broke My Worldview

The moment my Vue expertise felt truly obsolete came when I examined a benchmarked trading app comparison. A developer had challenged Juris, saying it should be compared to Vue’s Composition API, not just basic patterns. The Juris author responded with a live, verifiable trading application benchmark.

Live Demo Comparison
Experience the difference yourself:

Vue Composition API Demo: https://jurisjs.com/demos/vue_trading_dashboard.html
Juris enhance() Demo:
https://jurisjs.com/demos/juris_trading_dashboard.html

The results were devastating:

But here’s what made it worse: *I could see the Vue implementation was expertly optimized. * It used every performance pattern with some techniques even surprised me.

The Juris version? No visible optimizations. Just straightforward object definitions.

The Architectural Revelation

As I dug deeper, I realized the irony extends beyond performance. Juris eliminates entire categories of complexity that Vue requires:

No Computed Properties Needed

// Vue - Need computed for performance
const total = computed(() => {
  return items.value.reduce((sum, item) => sum + item.price, 0);
});

// Juris - Just JavaScript
{
  div: {
    text: () => items.reduce((sum, item) => sum + item.price, 0)
  }
}

No Watchers or Effects

// Vue - Complex reactive primitives
watch(count, (newVal) => {
  console.log('Count changed to', newVal);
});

// Juris - Functions just run when needed
{
  div: {
    text: () => getState('count'),
    onclick: () => {
      setState('count', getState('count') + 1);
      console.log('Count changed'); // No watcher needed
    }
  }
}

No Framework Debugging Tools Required

Vue DevTools, React DevTools, specialized debugging extensions—none needed. It’s just JavaScript objects becoming DOM. Browser DevTools work perfectly because there’s no abstraction layer to navigate.

The Expertise Obsolescence

The most painful irony: My Vue expertise might be expertise in solving problems that shouldn’t exist.

I spent years mastering:

• When to use computed() vs reactive()
• Watch vs watchEffect patterns
• Component lifecycle optimization
• Complex state management patterns
• Build tool configurations
• Framework-specific debugging techniques

And Juris just… doesn’t need any of it. The architecture eliminates the problems these patterns solve.

The AI Era Amplifier

But the cruelest irony is yet to come. Juris appears designed for the AI development era:

Traditional Framework + AI:

AI generates Vue code → Framework compiles it → Browser runs transformed code → Bug occurs in compiled code → Junior developer can't debug transformed code

Juris + AI:

AI generates Juris code → Browser runs exact same code → Junior developer debugs the actual AI-generated code

A junior developer with AI assistance using Juris might be more productive than a Vue expert. That’s not just framework competition—that’s paradigm obsolescence.

The Counter-Arguments That Don’t Exist

I tried for weeks to find technical counter-arguments. I listed every challenge I could think of:

• Performance? Juris outperforms optimized Vue
• Bundle size? No build step needed
• Ecosystem? Full JavaScript ecosystem access
• Debugging? Native browser tools work perfectly
• Learning curve? It’s just JavaScript objects
• TypeScript? Pure JavaScript objects work naturally
• Testing? Standard JavaScript testing applies

Every criticism I could conceive was systematically invalidated.

The Professional Dilemma

This puts Vue developers in an uncomfortable position:

1. Our expertise has immediate market value (companies are invested in Vue)
2. But we’ve potentially seen the future (simpler, faster, more AI-friendly)
3. The market hasn’t caught up yet (Juris jobs don’t exist)
4. But early positioning could be valuable (first-mover advantage)

The Bigger Irony

The ultimate irony isn’t about Vue vs Juris. It’s about the entire modern web development industry:

We’ve spent a decade building increasingly complex abstractions to solve problems that better architecture eliminates entirely.

• Virtual DOM to optimize DOM updates that surgical updates handle better
• Complex state management to handle reactivity that simpler patterns achieve more efficiently
• Build tools to optimize code that doesn’t need optimization
• Framework-specific debugging tools to debug problems that transparent architecture prevents

2,558 lines of thoughtful architecture revealing that hundreds of thousands of lines of ecosystem complexity might be… unnecessary.

The Uncomfortable Truth

I don’t want Juris to succeed. I have financial and professional investments in Vue’s continued dominance. But I can’t unsee what I’ve seen:

Sometimes better architecture makes expertise obsolete not through inadequacy, but through irrelevance.

The irony at 2,558 lines of code isn’t just that it’s smaller and faster than massive framework ecosystems. It’s that it makes the need for those ecosystems questionable in the first place.

Note: I’m writing this on a new account to avoid potentially inflammatory discussions at my current workplace. My colleagues and I work extensively with Vue, and I don’t want this exploration to create unnecessary tension or concern about our current projects. Vue remains a solid, proven framework with strong market demand, and our team’s expertise continues to deliver value.

This is simply my personal technical exploration of emerging paradigms, not a recommendation for immediate professional decisions.

I’m still processing the implications of this discovery. As much as I hate to admit it, I’m quietly learning Juris while maintaining my Vue skills. The market hasn’t shifted yet, but when paradigms change this fundamentally, it’s better to be early than sorry.

What’s your take? Am I overreacting to clever marketing, or witnessing the early stages of a major industry shift? I’d genuinely like to be wrong about this.

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by codeporn