We begin a course on Vue.js, a JavaScript framework for developing web applications, building user interfaces (UI), and single-page applications (SPA).
It was created by Evan You in 2014. While working at Google, Evan You used AngularJS to develop user interfaces. However, he found it too complex for certain cases.
So he took inspiration from AngularJS (especially in the components and databinding part) and also from React (in the reactive approach and the virtual DOM) to design a framework that was simpler and more flexible.
That inspiration led to the birth of Vue.js in 2014 🌄. Since then, it has gained enormous popularity due to its simplicity, flexibility, and performance.
At first, Vue.js struggled to achieve a high degree of adoption, mainly because it didn’t have the backing of a large company.
Progressively, Vue.js has become one of the top frontend frameworks of the moment, on par in popularity with the biggest ones like React or Angular.
And since it’s one of my favorite frameworks, … well, a course is coming 😀
Why Use Vue.js?
Vue.js has positioned itself as one of the most popular choices for frontend development for several key reasons:
For me, the main one is its reactivity system. That is, the way it updates the user interface when we make changes to the data.
One of the reasons why Vue.js’s reactivity is so powerful is because it is based on object mutability. This avoids many of the “peculiarities” of other frameworks (ahem, ahem … React… ahem).
But there are more reasons for Vue.js’s popularity. Let’s talk about some of them 👇.
Vue.js has a smooth learning curve, especially for developers already familiar with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Like almost all modern frameworks, Vue.js is component-based, allowing the application to be divided into reusable and maintainable parts.
Finally, it uses a simple template system. It combines HTML with special directives, styles, and scripts in the same file.
Vue.js is a progressive framework, meaning you don’t need to adopt the entire Vue.js ecosystem all at once.
You can start with the basics and add more functionality as needed. This way, you can integrate it into an existing project or use it to build a complete application from scratch.
Vue.js is known for its high performance. It uses a virtual rendering system (Virtual DOM) similar to React’s, but with improvements in dependency management and reactivity.
This results in a very fast and fluid user interface, even in complex applications, or with many data changes.
There are even several ideas and mechanisms on the way to optimize it much further.
Vue.js has an active community and a growing ecosystem.
Tools such as:
- Vue Router
- Pinia (for state management)
- Vite (for fast building)
- Nuxt.js (for SSR and SSG)
- UI Component Libraries
Make Vue.js a complete and future-proof choice for development (if a framework doesn’t attract a community and generate components, it’s doomed to disappear soon).
In short, Vue.js is one of the leading frameworks for web application development (and, as I said, one of my favorites).
If you are starting in the world of frontend development or looking for a framework for your web applications, Vue.js is an excellent choice.
In the following tutorials of this course, we will see how to use Vue.js from the very basics, to building complex applications 🎉.
