I'm new here, so maybe I'm misunderstanding some Web developer jargon? I had assumed that, when someone says "vanilla JS" in a web development context, it was understood to mean, "the core language plus the standard browser APIs."
"Vanilla C" maybe isn't a perfect analogy because the language and standard library are both covered by the same spec. But I suppose I would argue that it means, "Just C and its standard library, not including, for example, glibc extras." I don't know what a C equivalent to React would be. Maybe a better analogy would be "Vanilla Java", with the intent being to imply that you aren't using Spring?
You are correct. "Vanilla JS" is typically compared to React/Vue as a joke. As in "React.js is 2kb but Vanilla.js is 0kb and super lightweight".
"Vanilla C" doesn't have the same context as far as I'm aware. In the same spirit I could imagine a comparison for C would be along the lines of "you could use SDL (Simple DirectMedia Library) for your indie game dev, but why bother when you could use vanilla C (code Vulkan 3D graphics API directly)".
"Vanilla C" maybe isn't a perfect analogy because the language and standard library are both covered by the same spec. But I suppose I would argue that it means, "Just C and its standard library, not including, for example, glibc extras." I don't know what a C equivalent to React would be. Maybe a better analogy would be "Vanilla Java", with the intent being to imply that you aren't using Spring?