Keynote, How Vite Came to Be | Evan You | ViteConf 2022

Evan You recounts the journey of creating Vite, from its early days as a response to frontend pain points to its evolution into a higher-level tool chain for building scalable and efficient applications.

Key takeaways
  • Evan You created Vue as a response to the pain of frontend development in 2013, but it wasn’t until 2015 that JavaScript had a standardized module system.
  • Vue was initially built on top of Webpack, but it was not designed to be framework-agnostic.
  • The first major problem was how to handle hot module replacement over native ES module imports.
  • Evan You realized that Vue could be more than just a replacement for Vue CLI, and he decided to rewrite it to focus on serving as a higher-level tool chain.
  • In 2019, he created a proof of concept for a server that could transform ES modules on the fly, and it became the basis for the new Vue.
  • The new Vue was rewritten to be more concise and efficient, and it used Rollup as its bundling tool.
  • Evan You realized that Vue could be used as a middleware for other frameworks, and he started implementing a plugin API to make it easier to integrate with other tools.
  • He also started working on V2, which was designed to be more flexible and easier to use.
  • The strategy for V2 was to converge on ES modules and make it possible to use single file components.
  • The V2 release was a major milestone for the Vue community, and it marked a shift towards a more standardized and efficient tool chain.
  • Evan You realized that Vue could be used as a middleware for other frameworks, and he started implementing a plugin API to make it easier to integrate with other tools.
  • He also started working on V3, which was designed to be even more flexible and easier to use.
  • The V3 release was a major milestone for the Vue community, and it marked a shift towards a more standardized and efficient tool chain.
  • Evan You is proud of the progress that has been made, and he is excited to see where the future of frontend development takes us.