> I'm pretty sure gmail started out without a framework.
I'm pretty sure you're right.
I'm also pretty sure it's not only one of the big reasons frameworks exists as they do today (because it's perhaps one of the earliest and probably the most famous example of a web app that 100% _needs_ a framework for all the reasons discussed everywhere in this thread), but that it's also the poster child case of why every ambitious/opinionated/inexperienced FE dev builds their own framework (Of _course_ I can't use jQuery/Angular/React/Fluttr! _My_ ToDo list app is _groundbreaking and special_ - just like gmail was in 2004, I'll need to write my own framework for this. Stand back! <flexes>") ;-)
I'm pretty sure you're right.
I'm also pretty sure it's not only one of the big reasons frameworks exists as they do today (because it's perhaps one of the earliest and probably the most famous example of a web app that 100% _needs_ a framework for all the reasons discussed everywhere in this thread), but that it's also the poster child case of why every ambitious/opinionated/inexperienced FE dev builds their own framework (Of _course_ I can't use jQuery/Angular/React/Fluttr! _My_ ToDo list app is _groundbreaking and special_ - just like gmail was in 2004, I'll need to write my own framework for this. Stand back! <flexes>") ;-)