🌿 exoteric

The tool of choice for the madding crowd

Tooling shouldn't be hard to understand.

Make components from cross-browser web standards without thinking too hard.

exoteric is a library to help.

Stats:

• Built and gzipped: 17K

Why?

exoteric

/ˌɛksə(ʊ)ˈtɛrɪk/

adjective FORMAL

intended for or likely to be understood by the general public.

Kernighan's Law

Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it.

(Brian Kernighan)

Kernighan's Law is named for Brian Kernighan and derived from a quote from Kernighan and Plauger's book The Elements of Programming Style:

Everyone knows that debugging is twice as hard as writing a program in the first place. So if you're as clever as you can be when you write it, how will you ever debug it?

While hyperbolic, Kernighan's Law makes the argument that simple code is to be preferred over complex code, because debugging any issues that arise in complex code may be costly or even infeasible.

So, what's this?

No JSX, no Shadow DOM, no fancy framworks, no opinions.

• Just HTML, CSS and JavaScript—No JSX, no Shadow DOM, no fancy frameworks, no opinions.
• Stop learning, stagnate!—Use the syntax you already know. Stop learning new things. Do more with what's already here.
• Crazy and fun, but in a serious way—exoteric is the tool for people who don't want to think too hard to make UI.

To learn more...oh wait, you already know enough.

be exoteric

function Spin(n) {
  return e`  
    <div 
      wheel:passive=${spin}
      touchmove:passive=${move}
    >
      <h1>
        <progress 
          max=1000
          value=${n}
        ></progress>
        <hr>
        <input 
          input=${step}
          type=number 
          value=${n}>
    </div>
  `;
}

Still not bored?

You soon will be. Nothing notable here: Play with the full example on CodePen

See even more boring code in a 250 line TodoMVC test

Holy secular install mantras

Install exoteric with npm:

npm i --save exoteric

Parcel or Webpack exoteric and import:

import { e } from 'exoteric'

See a CodeSandbox how-to of above

Or import in a module:

<script type=module>
  import { e } from 'https://unpkg.com/exoteric'
</script>

See a CodePen how-to of above

Basic Examples

Components

Defining

const Title = state => e`<h1>${state}</h1>`

Nesting

const Parent = state => e`<main>${Title(state)}</main>`;

Inserting

Parent("Hello").to('body', 'beforeEnd');

Updating

Parent("Greetings");
let i = 1;
setTimeout(() => Parent(`${i++} 'Hi's`), 3000);

ToDo ~MVC~ Example

function App(state) {
  const {list} = state;
  return e`
    <header class=header>
      <h1>todos</h1>
      <input autofocus
        class=new-todo 
        placeholder="What needs to be done?"
        keydown=${newTodoIfEnter} 
      >
    </header>
    <main>
      ${TodoList(list)}
      ${Footer()}
    </main>
  `;
}

function TodoList(list) {
  return e`
    <ul class=todo-list>
      ${list.map(Todo)}
    </ul>
  `;
}

Updating on events

  function newTodoIfEnter(keyEvent) {
    if ( keyEvent.key !== 'Enter' ) return;
    
    State.todos.push(makeTodo(keyEvent.target.value));
    TodoList(State.todos);
    keyEvent.target.value = '';
  }

Properties

Do not exist.

Global State

is nothing special.

Routing

function changeHash(e) {
  e.preventDefault();
  history.replaceState(null,null,e.target.href);
  routeHash();
}

function routeHash() {
  switch(location.hash) {
    case "#/active":                listActive(); break;
    case "#/completed":             listCompleted(); break;
    case "#/":          default:    listAll(); break;
  }
}

function Routes() {
  return e`
    <ul class=filters>
      <li>
        <a href=#/ click=${changeHash}
          class=${location.hash == "#/" ? 'selected' : ''}>All</a>
      </li>
      <li>
        <a href=#/active click=${changeHash}
          class=${location.hash == "#/active" ? 'selected' : ''}>Active</a>
      </li>
      <li>
        <a href=#/completed click=${changeHash}
          class=${location.hash == "#/completed" ? 'selected' : ''}>Completed</a>
      </li>
    </ul>
  `
}

Most of the examples above are taken from in a 250 line TodoMVC test, the full code of which you can see here..

Can you hear the people sing