No build step

Jim Nielsen on the cost of avoiding annoyance, which is itself a commentary on why HTMX (the framework for JS-in-HTML) doesn't have a build step.

A resounding yes! here: if you're using boring technology for your backend and progressively enhancing your frontend, modern browsers have made it extremely easy to skip out on the build step, both for CSS and JavaScript. This website has no build step, and it's got light/dark mode, color/bw mode, a dynamic component for pulling my recent tracks from Last.fm, and a search k-bar.

Heck, my brother's website doesn't even import stylesheets, it just uses Twig templates to dump a template called style.css into a <style> tag.

Next time you're spinning up a (let's be serious) side project, reconsider whether you even need a build step.