Frontend Systems — Production Reference

Vanilla Node (Raw HTTP)

A minimal HTTP server using Node's native module. Routing, headers, and serialization are handled manually. This exposes the raw execution model and its limitations as complexity grows.

import http from "http";

const server = http.createServer((req, res) => {
  if (req.url === "/users" && req.method === "GET") {
    res.writeHead(200, { "Content-Type": "application/json" });
    res.end(JSON.stringify([{ id: 1, name: "Camilo" }]));
  } else {
    res.writeHead(404);
    res.end();
  }
});

server.listen(3000);

✅ Good Practices

Exposes how HTTP actually works beneath frameworks.

❌ Anti-Patterns

Manual routing and response handling become unmanageable as endpoints grow.

🧠 Decision

Use raw Node only when minimal control is required or for learning core runtime behavior.

📈 Scale Impact

Complexity grows linearly with routes; no structural boundaries.

⚖ Consistency Model

Single-threaded request handling via event loop.

🏗 Infrastructure Impact

Lightweight, but lacks structured middleware or error boundaries.

🔥 Failure Mode

Error handling must be manually implemented per route.

Server Runtime — Node (Production Perspective)