Mithril, an open source JavaScript framework for single-page applications, is looking to best Facebook's React, Google's Angular, and Vue JavaScript tools in performance and ease of use. It reached the 1.0.0 release stage last week.
The framework is small and fast, and it provides routing and XHR (XMLHttpRequest) out of the box. Mithril also offers benefits in relative density, lead developer Leo Horie said. "It's possible to develop entire applications without resorting to other libraries, and it's not uncommon for Mithril apps to weigh a third of other apps of similar complexity." Horie said that the framework feels closer to vanilla JavaScript.
Mithril's website features a comparison to Angular, React, and Vue. Mithril, for example, offers much quicker library load times and update performance than React, and it has a better learning curve and update performance than Angular. Compared to Vue, Mithril supposedly offers better library load times and update performance. Vue and Mithril both use virtual DOM and lifecycle methods, and both Angular and Mithril supporting componentization.
The framework hopes to make the learning curve for modern web development as low as possible with its API and tooling requirements. Plans for Mithril call for a continued focus on simplifying development workflow. "The v1.0.0 release is actually smaller in size than the previous releases, but I feel it's still possible to simplify things more than the current status quo on the tooling side," Horie said.