I recently blogged about [0] how I felt after some experiments with a traditional multi-page application with simple Web Components as "Progressive Enhancement". Taking an "offline first" approach to the "simple CRUD" of the application (saving everything all the time in Local Storage and then doing very simple "3-way merges" with remote data as it catches up) made it feel enough like a SPA that I was thrilled with overall performance. Think I just need to add CSS View Transitions for one last bit of "SPA-like" polish.
I am starting to think now is a great time to return to some of the Knockout-era ideals of "Progressive Enhancement". Web Components, the template tag, local storage, CSS view transitions, and a few other subtle modern things seem to be getting close to the point where the DX is as good or better than SPAs and the UX feels similar or better, too.
I am starting to think now is a great time to return to some of the Knockout-era ideals of "Progressive Enhancement". Web Components, the template tag, local storage, CSS view transitions, and a few other subtle modern things seem to be getting close to the point where the DX is as good or better than SPAs and the UX feels similar or better, too.
[0] https://blog.worldmaker.net/2025/04/27/book-club/