JavaScript Toolkits

JavaScript toolkits and build tools are essential for modern web development. They handle tasks like bundling, transpiling, and providing a fast development environment.

Vite

Vite is a frontend tool that is extremely fast. It has revolutionized the development experience by leveraging native ES modules in the browser.

• Fast Hot Module Replacement (HMR): Instant updates when you save changes, regardless of project size.
• Native ES Modules: Development server starts instantly by serving source code as native ESM.
• Build Optimized: Uses Rollup under the hood for highly optimized production builds with features like tree-shaking and lazy loading.
• Universal Plugins: Shared plugin interface across development and build, compatible with many Rollup plugins.

Example: Starting a Project

# Initialize a new project using Vite
npm create vite@latest
# Follow the prompts to select your framework (React, Vue, etc.)
cd my-project
npm install
npm run dev

Other Build Tools & Bundlers

While Vite is the modern standard for new projects, you should be aware of other tools that exist in the ecosystem.

Webpack

The dominant bundler of the 2017–2022 era. Still widely used in legacy and enterprise projects.

• Highly Configurable: Loaders, plugins, and code splitting.
• Large Ecosystem: Enormous plugin library.
• Verbose Config: Can be complex to set up compared to Vite.

esbuild

An extremely fast JavaScript bundler and minifier written in Go. Vite uses esbuild internally for development builds.

• Speed: 10–100x faster than traditional bundlers.
• Limited Plugin API: Intentionally simple; not meant for every use case.

Rollup

A module bundler focused on producing efficient ES module output. Vite uses Rollup for its production builds.

• Tree-Shaking Pioneer: Excellent at removing unused code.
• Library Focused: The go-to choice for bundling npm packages.

Turbopack

A Rust-based successor to Webpack, developed by Vercel. Integrated into Next.js.

• Incremental Computation: Only rebuilds what changed.
• Next.js Integration: Designed specifically for the Next.js ecosystem.

Parcel

A zero-configuration build tool that “just works.”

• Zero Config: Automatically detects and supports HTML, CSS, JS, images, etc.
• Good for Beginners: Great for small projects where you don’t want to manage build configs.

---

Linting & Formatting

Linting and formatting tools enforce consistent code quality and style across a team. They catch bugs and stylistic issues automatically.

ESLint

The standard linter for JavaScript and TypeScript. It analyzes your code to find problems and enforce coding conventions.

• Customizable Rules: Enable, disable, or configure hundreds of rules.
• Plugin Ecosystem: Plugins for React, Vue, accessibility, imports, and more.
• Auto-fix: Many rules can be fixed automatically with --fix.

npm init @eslint/config
npx eslint .

Prettier

An opinionated code formatter. Unlike ESLint (which checks logic and conventions), Prettier only cares about how code looks — indentation, line length, quotes, semicolons, etc.

• Zero Debate: Enforces one consistent style with minimal configuration.
• Multi-Language: Formats JS, TS, CSS, HTML, JSON, Markdown, and more.

npx prettier --write .

Biome

A fast, all-in-one toolchain that combines linting and formatting in a single tool, written in Rust.

• Fast: Significantly faster than ESLint + Prettier combined.
• Drop-in Replacement: Compatible with most ESLint and Prettier rules.
• Single Tool: No need to manage two separate configs.

npx @biomejs/biome check --write .

Stylelint

A linter specifically for CSS, SCSS, and CSS-in-JS.

• Catches errors in stylesheets (invalid properties, duplicate selectors).
• Enforces consistent ordering and naming conventions.