Abstract

This article does not take sides. The intention is to map a debate that has been running through frontend development for years without reaching a conclusion, because it probably cannot reach one:

Where should related code live, and who gets to decide?

The question touches file structure, framework philosophy, compiler design, and — underneath all of it — what we think the unit of work in UI development actually is. We will look at how different frameworks have answered it, what tradeoffs each answer carries, and what changes when a compiler sits between the developer and the runtime.

Table of Contents

Thesis

Historical context

Evidence and positions

Vue and the Single File Component

React and the absence of a position

A critical voice from within Vue

Analysis

The implicit constraint

The paradox of the compile step

What the debate is actually about

A concrete case: Origami

The file as a feature boundary

Styling as a language-level concern

What the compiler changes, and what it does…