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This is not a great article and is resistant to criticism by virtue of its excessive length. Still, I'll try to point out some major flaws. 1. Single page apps

This is not a great article and is resistant to criticism by virtue of its excessive length. Still, I'll try to point out some major flaws. 1. Single page apps have many drawbacks that are conveniently not mentioned: Slow load time, memory bloat, persistence of state on reload, corruption of state and others. SPAs are just another misguided attempt at making web apps more like desktop apps. Web apps are network applications - if you remove the network communications portion, what is the point of them? 2. JS is a great tool to make pages more responsive. This has been the case for years and I am lost on why the author writes on and on about it without any poignant observations or facts. 3. Using push (web sockets) is a valuable tool for accomplishing particular features. This does not mean that more is better and we should start using it for everything. Server pull is a strong feature of the web and is arguably a key to much of its success. 4. Ajax is great, no argument. 5. Saving state as a hash value in the URL not only puts JS actions into history, but makes them visible and bookmarkable as well. Push state is a quagmire. 6. The need to push code updates is one of the problems caused by SPAs that is not needed in normal web apps. Even so, this could be solved with a decent, as yet unimplemented, application cache. 7. Predicting actions is overkill. If you focused on doing everything else well, there is no need to add significant amounts of complication. More code = poorer performance and decreased maintainability.

darkmarmot 12y ago
I agree with all of your points but number 1. I think a good SPA should be a network-reliant application whose complexity is demanded by the use case. And a good framework for one should have provide near instant load times: a small core library with additional resources and logic only loaded on demand.
- protonfish 12y ago
  I think of good applications as a collection of SPAs. There is no benefit to forcing every single feature of an app into only one page. Ajax means we can implement more functionality without a page reload, which is good to a degree, but at a cost of slower initial load, losing URL state, and difficulty tracing UI behavior to underlying code. I am working on a legacy SPA now and it's horrible. (Our users have learned to refresh frequently due to uncertainty of state.) I am not sure how much to blame on poor implementation as opposed to inherent weaknesses of SPA architecture.
  - darkmarmot 12y ago
    Almost all of the SPA frameworks out there right now are nightmarish. I think React is pretty good but limited. What you're describing is probably a much better way to handle the needs of most sites.
- shangxiao 12y ago
  Furthermore, pushing most of the UI layer to the client reduces server load and results in a more horizontally scalable solution.
rictic 12y ago
With a little work you can make a single page app that keeps the state preserved in the URL. The reason you try to remove all blocking on network communication is the obvious one: performance.

darkmarmot 12y ago

I agree with all of your points but number 1. I think a good SPA should be a network-reliant application whose complexity is demanded by the use case. And a good framework for one should have provide near instant load times: a small core library with additional resources and logic only loaded on demand.

protonfish 12y ago
I think of good applications as a collection of SPAs. There is no benefit to forcing every single feature of an app into only one page. Ajax means we can implement more functionality without a page reload, which is good to a degree, but at a cost of slower initial load, losing URL state, and difficulty tracing UI behavior to underlying code. I am working on a legacy SPA now and it's horrible. (Our users have learned to refresh frequently due to uncertainty of state.) I am not sure how much to blame on poor implementation as opposed to inherent weaknesses of SPA architecture.
- darkmarmot 12y ago
  Almost all of the SPA frameworks out there right now are nightmarish. I think React is pretty good but limited. What you're describing is probably a much better way to handle the needs of most sites.
shangxiao 12y ago
Furthermore, pushing most of the UI layer to the client reduces server load and results in a more horizontally scalable solution.

rictic 12y ago

With a little work you can make a single page app that keeps the state preserved in the URL. The reason you try to remove all blocking on network communication is the obvious one: performance.