No entienden la fakin vibra ✦ v1.1.0

I remember always despising the virtual DOM and magic web stuff even before actually getting to use it. It was like freaking sorcery, and still is — weird and bloaty black magic.

When I finally touched it for the first time, it was so damn gross I almost puked all over the place... still had to use it tho.

But not all my work and projects are serious enough, so when creating little tiny silly webs, I created a couple of scripts that would work as a static components fabric and a SPA router, all mounted on Vite.

Yah, components.js and spa.js were my little pieces of code that I would drag from project to project (kinda cringy actually), until I started to work on the first prototype of Starlog.

Starlog was pretty much way more complex than those other past websites, so my scripts became such a problem I would waste more time fixing and improving them rather than actually working on Starlog.

So, I decided to create my own framework.

Oh my! such an adventurous boy...

Actually, it was not the first time thinking about it. The first time designing my own framework, even before knowing what a bloody framework is, was as a silly kid — idk, like 12 or something.

At that time I would only use 100% vanilla HTML, so I asked myself:

— how the fuck do people create websites with such repetitive code!?

And so, I opened freaking Notepad and started drafting my own components. Not really proud of what came out, I didn't even know how JS works lol.

<!-- component -->
<div>:param</div>

<!-- usage -->
<component>
    :param {value}
</component>

Weird af ain't it? It was called Swifty.

Couple of years later, in highschool, I remembered I created this abomination, and instead of forcing it into oblivion for humanity's sake, I decided it was a good idea to make it actually work.

I knew what a freaking JavaScript method was (kinda), so I created a little thing that could actually create a hot reload working dev server. Obviously never finished the framework. It was funny to work on tho.

Anyway, back to the present. You know when you initialize a Vite project and the CLI asks for your flavor?

> Select your Vite flavor:
○ Vanilla
○ React
○ Vue
○ some other shit i'm too lazy to write down

I really like the concept of Vanilla being the name for no extras in your code. And I was actively working on a little Python tool called CocoaTabs (probably obsolete now, try it if you want anyway) cause I had nothing else to do with my life.

And my imagination went like "imagine this bro":

> Select your Vite flavor:
○ Vanilla
○ Chocola    <-- your own framework!!!
○ other shit nobody should care about

It was kinda cool cause chocolate and vanilla are like two of the flavors of the holy trinity of ice cream flavors. It was like a real pun on flavor.

So, despite not knowing Svelte was already a thing, I started creating Chocola with pretty much the same core philosophy.

Just as all those giant corpo fully functional, massive, well designed (some) and highly adopted wannabe frameworks out there, I (me, even) would be so different and unique; so I ended up deciding Chocola would work by itself instead of working on Vite.

Anyway, that's how we got here with a pretentious and petty love letter to the web and a hate letter to the institutional web dev.

Am I stupid and foolish for thinking I can compete with frameworks such as Svelte?

Of course I fucking am. Anyway, It's funny to do so and I've been learning a lot in the process.

For now that's all folks. Later on I'll be talking about why the fuck I designed Chocola the way it is, if you ever wondered (of course not).

See ya.

— SadGabi 🖤