Thinking Outside the Box: Alternative Architectures for Modern Web Applications

In a world dominated by traditional architectures, developers often overlook other patterns that could better serve their apps. This talk explores lessons we can learn from different parts of the globe and various industries, via two approaches that challenge our traditional thinking about web apps.

First, we'll explore the Mini App architecture, a paradigm that emerged from China's unique ecosystem. We'll examine how these—operating within super app environments like WeChat—represent a radical shift from traditional web apps. We'll discuss their dual-thread architecture and lifecycle management, and how this approach might achieve performance gains.

Then, we'll question what would happen if the DOM and other native view systems weren't based on a tree abstraction. For that, we'll discuss the Entity Component System (ECS) architecture, traditionally associated with game development, and see how its data-oriented design can solve complex state management challenges and improve performance in ways traditional component hierarchies cannot.