I was wondering why this was all so much easier back in VB than it is in the browser, and I think you're right: we've got to keep the state in the DOM and the "useful" state in the program in sync. Whereas in VB there was only one program so only one source of truth (though it was possible to get your GUI desynced from your database, you kinda had to work hard to do that).
I think this is what Elm solved (and then by plagiarising the same approach, React and Vue). Make the interface declarative rather than imperative and voila - state is automatically in sync.
I think this is what Elm solved (and then by plagiarising the same approach, React and Vue). Make the interface declarative rather than imperative and voila - state is automatically in sync.