Why not ?

The Svelte framework provides a radical new approach to working with UI development on the web. As a compiler, Svelte optimizes many of the problems that runtime libraries produce mainly in regard to speed. For state management Svelte re-evaluates DOM changes without virtual middleware, and instead updates the DOM directly. Since the result of the compilation is what is called 'framework-less' vanilla javascript one takes advantage of all modern component based separation without any of the overhead.

Picking a meta-framework depends heavily on the type of web application one might be working on. Usually there is no cookie cutter framework case for everything, some apps fit better with an MPA some with SPAs, others with server side rendering or edge computing. This is not the case with the Astro framework. Astro's new update to version 2 solidified this impressive piece of software as a new wave of shipping and deploying websites. With astro, it is possible to combine multiple component libraries, use content collections like markdown or jsx, and now use hybrid rendering techniques to employ, truly, the fastest meta-framework solution ever created. The part that was most revolutionary was the implementation of progressive hydration with the use of astro islands of dynamic components in the 'sea' of static, non-interactive html. That way most of the website remains javascript-free while parts that need client-side dynamic behaviour can be rendered accordingly achieving amazing performance. Even though my website does not use this idea to its full potential, it is still a concept that will transform the way do web development for the forseable future.

An exciting website needs interactivity, interesting visual elements and animation to bring components to life. A distinct design language for a website is no longer enough to present uniqueness and so innovative animation ideas become more and more important. The bread and butter of `dreamnotexpiring` in terms of animations is GSAP (obviously). Here almost every part of the library is used from timelines to keyframes, easings, scroll-triggered animations, fancy page transitions with swupjs. Again following the theme around speed and performance, GSAP is chosen simply for the ease of use and incredible performance that allows complex animations without lags, even for the slowest of computers.

Smooth scrolling introduces a refreshing layer of eye (and scroll) candy when navigating a website. Most solutions however create problems in implementation. Libraries like smooth-scrollbar, or locomotive rely on scroll jacking, ScrollSmoother from GSAP, is only an extension on ScrollTrigger and is problematic with horizontal scrollers (especially on Safari). For the purposes of this website `Lenis` was chosen. This new library does not hijack the scroll behaviour, but instead extends the native mechanism to behave smoothly. It is now possible to layer animations, with both horizontal and vertical scrolling, as well as position elements as fixed, since there is no `scrolling layer` over the scrollable content that other libraries need.