Migrating from Fresh to Hono 🔥

Why do you migrate your personal site so often?

I wanted to start addressing this question because I've been migrating my blog for a few year now, and I think it's important to share the reasons behind it.

The main reason is that I like to experiment with new technologies and frameworks. I believe that by doing so, I can learn new things and improve my skills as a developer. I also think that it's important to stay up-to-date with the latest trends in the industry, and migrating my blog is a way for me to do that.

Another reason is that I like to challenge myself. Migrating my blog to a new framework is not an easy task, and it requires a lot of time and effort. But I enjoy the process, and I find it rewarding to see the end result.

Finally, I think that migrating my blog is a way for me to showcase my work. By sharing the process of migrating my blog, I can show others what I'm capable of and what I've learned along the way.

Why Hono this time?

Hono is similar to express, a lightweight and flexible framework that allows me to build powerful web applications. It's built on web standards and supports any JavaScript runtime, which makes it a great choice for my blog.

Instead of using a bloated and opinionated framework, I wanted to use something that gives me more control over my code and allows me to build things the way I want. Hono provides me with the flexibility I need to create a blog that meets my requirements.

Hono also is fast, efficient and easy to deploy, and now Deno offers a great compatibility with Node.js packages, such as remark, which I'm using to generate my blog posts.

HTMX

I'm also using HTMX to make my blog more interactive. HTMX is a library that allows me to create dynamic web applications using HTML, CSS, and almost no JavaScript. It's lightweight and easy to use, and it provides me with the tools I need to build a modern and responsive app.

HTMX is a great addition to Hono, and it allows me to create a blog that is fast, efficient, and user-friendly.

JSX

I'm using JSX, which is supported by Hono out of the box, but I'm not using client components. I'm using JSX as a Server-Side template engine, and when I need some JS, I add it as callback functions that changes DOM directly, no shadow DOM, no virtual DOM, just plain old DOM manipulation.

Overall experience

Migrating my blog to Hono was a great experience. It allowed me to learn new things, improve my skills, and create a blog that meets my requirements. Hono is a powerful and flexible framework that gives me the control I need to build things the way I want.

I also found it faster to build, extensible, and a great tool for the Deno stack.

The only thing I missed was some kind of macro or building tool. We have deno compile which doesn't work with NPM packages, but even if it worked, I'd still to generate code in build time 🥲. But I think I can live without it for now.

What comes next?

Not a Next.js app, for sure 😂.

Honestly, I'm happy with Hono, and I think I'll stick with it for a while. WhenI get bored, I'll probably migrate to something else, but for now, I'm happywith what I have.

You can check the code here.

Thanks for reading! 🚀