HTML over WebSockets: real-time SPAs with barely any JavaScript

> The quick rule: if you need bidirectional, low-latency communication (chat, collaboration, games), WebSocket; if you only push from the server, SSE is simpler and cheaper to operate.

For most apps just use SSE and the built-in code for making HTTP requests (Fetch) instead of hacking up your own client side JS to make requests over a WebSocket. The latency is the same because modern browsers multiplex HTTP requests over a single TCP connection that is left open.

Maybe if you are making many client requests per second there is an advantage to not sending full headers/cookies/etc... on each request but not if you're sending requests in response to user clicks/touches.

Any sufficiently complicated SPA contains an ad hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Fetch.

A good response to this post

https://yagni.club/3mstlyuxe5s26

Love how DHTML, ASP.NET Ajax, JSF Ajax kind of keeps being re-invented.

What’s wrong with this idea, really? It’s redundant because you can serve HTML to requests with Apache or Ngnix or any other server on the happy path.

What’s right with the idea, really? It’s exactly what the tried and true preferences of developers have been shown to be: getting in the way of the happy path for no reason.

Now you can have build steps and put story points in Jira and do it all on the server where we don’t have to see it, and the success condition is that the text gets served. Both sides can be happy now.

> Simple, elegant and fast.

Until someone bombs your websocket server and you then have nothing at all.

So a RESTless webserver

Is this satire? Rage bait? Why would you ever do this?

Just make a normal website!! You've invented an MPA with extra steps!

great one