NOTES.md

Improvements Explosiv have over Dhow

• If a file ends with .html.js, say 404.html.js it will be outputted as 404.html, not the default 404/index.html way
• Head is built-in.
• No need to import Explosiv everytime.
• Provide an explosiv serve command that serve a static directory on a specified port (defaults to 3000).
• Head elements are added on top of document.head instead of the bottom (allowing overriding existing tags)
• Rewritten for build code to be independent and ease debugging
• Does not use polka but the more minimal connect.
• Use middleware deemed as useful like morgan which log all requests and compression which compress resources on HTTP.
• Fixed bugs on edge cases like rendering <> (aka Fragment tags) as root elements and rendering empty children.
• Added support for className HTML attribute.
• Fixed bug where self-closing (like <img src="/path/to.img">) elements doesn't render correctly.
• Use tabs instead of 4 spaces lol!
• And other many but subtle changes.

Benefits of using Explosiv over something like React

• Very easy to learn (if you already know HTML or React)
• Super duper fast builds (mainly because of using ESBuild)
• No need to render or hydrate on the client-side
• No need to load large Javascript bundles on the client-side (React, React-DOM, webpack, unnecessary polyfills)
• Pages load fast and run very smoothly, aiming always for 100% Lighthouse scores

Whatever you do, note that Explosiv is for building static sites only. Not fully featured sites that use data at runtime server-side. If you want something complex, your best bet is Next.js