Create a SPA without a bundler

Guide on a minimal SPA, without bundlers, cdn, or nodejs

I typically start new front-end prototypes with a single HTML file that I view using a file:// URL. I enjoy this practice of incrementally growing my projects, so I’ll keep working in that single file for as long as I can. Once it becomes unwieldy, I’ll split out the CSS and JavaScript into dedicated files. Then when manual DOM manipulation gets too complex, I’ll reach for a front-end framework. Until recently though, I wasn’t sure how to make this step feel incremental. Most framework installations recommend npm install, which means my project will now depend on NodeJS. Some frameworks have a hosted CDN option, but I’m similarly uncomfortable accepting that infrastructural dependency. Ideally, I’d just grab the framework files, import them from my JavaScript, and then carry on with my file:// URL.