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Show HN: Lite – A small, fast text editor

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Re: Show HN: Lite – A small, fast text editor

#141

Post by SahAssar »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #132
SahAssar wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, as native as any language that runs in a VM. There is no reason a WASM app can or can't be any more or less native than something running on lua (like in this case), jvm or anything else. People don't use Electron to get a js runtime, they use it to get a web-like runtime. Any javascript (including WASM) app can run without electron in either node or in the bundled runtimes that OSX/Windows/Gnome/Whatever has,…

So, obviously, "native" is a spectrum. On OS X, Cocoa > QT > Java > Wine > Docker + X11 forwarding. But one thing I think is being missed here is that Lua, Python, and other scripting languages are just a lot more resource efficient than electron, in terms of runtime size, memory usage, cpu usage, etc. A very highly optimized Electron app like VS Code might outperform a more run-of-the-mill Lua app, but that's an out…

You're comparing apples to oranges. Lua is a language runtime. Electron is a full browser and a language runtime.

If you want to compare them then compare node.js or JavaScriptCore to lua. Or compare Electron with a lua runtime that has a webkit/chromium engine integration.

I don't especially like Electron, and sometimes like writing lua, but the two are not solving the same problem or competing in the same space.

Re: Show HN: Lite – A small, fast text editor

#143

Post by donquichotte »

Lite is written by rxi, who has made some excellent game jams with very impressive youtube videos showing him doing programming, artwork and sound effects, all at record time [1]. His other github repos are also excellent, for example fe, a minimal Lisp, is definitely worth checking out.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1eJk1sWcUYvBwnn7v5RLaQ/vid...

Re: Show HN: Lite – A small, fast text editor

#144

Post by coldtea »

cwyers wrote: post #71
mmm_grayons wrote: post #56

This is a very nice piece of work, and I think very important: it shows that it's very much possible to make slick interfaces without using javascript/web technologies. It's also just as hackable as something like vscode or vim. I hope there's a shift back to native or semi-native applications as opposed to web-based stuff. It's certainly not perfect yet (it has some scaling/rendering issues and is slow to open large…

It's written in Lua and doesn't use the OS GUI APIs and widgets anywhere. I'm not sure I understand what makes this more "native" than Javascript.

>I'm not sure I understand what makes this more "native" than Javascript.

Not using a full blown web rendering engine (if that's the case) but OS painting (not necessarily GUI) APIs would make it much more native in my eyes...

Re: Show HN: Lite – A small, fast text editor

#145

Post by seventh-chord »

daneel_w wrote: post #66
stephc_int13 wrote: post #55

Very impressive. Font Rendering does not seem to be as crisp as needed for a text editor. (on Windows at least) I know Sublime is using DirectWrite to render fonts on Win32, this might be something to explore. Also, TrueType with subpixel antialiasing should give good results but might need some tweaking. I'll follow this project and I might use it as my main editor once it is more mature :)

When I run this editor on Windows 10 the text appears to me as crisp as in any other editor I have available.

Do you have a high dpi display? Lite does neither supixel-aa nor hinting, which is very noticeable on a 24" 1080p display. The lack of hintig is most noticeable at the top of letters where sharp edges look blury.

Re: Show HN: Lite – A small, fast text editor

#146

Post by didibus »

nwienert wrote: post #82
samtheprogram wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s way less abstraction going on in Lua app that has a hand-rolled GUI versus an app built on top of a web browser like Electron. Hand rolling you’re own UI doesn’t make it less native — is Ableton Live not-native? Or are you drawing the line because Lua is a scripting language?

You seem to be the one drawing the line saying Electron isn’t vs something like this is. Is a WASM app that renders to WebGL native? I guess the point is native should probably mean “using the toolkit the OS provides” and we should just use “performant” in most cases.

I don't know how people are finding ways to contradict your comment.

Native means using the native UI toolkit. Or if not about UIs, it can mean compiled to native machine code ahead of time.

People used to care about native vs non-native because of the look and feel.

Now people are complaining about performance, memory use, and startup times. Everyone would be happy using a non native toolkit if it was fast, used little memory and started quickly.

Why can't we be precise with our language? We're engineers, it seems critical to use precise terminology. If you don't like the look and feels let's discuss that, if you don't like the memory use, let's discuss that, if you don't like the distribution or install size, let's discuss that.

Re: Show HN: Lite – A small, fast text editor

#148

Post by saagarjha »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #140
saagarjha wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, for a while Java was just below Cocoa for "nativeness" the LAF for it was maintained by Apple itself.

I'd heard that before! I kind of debated whether to put Java or QT first—it came down to the fact that QT apps just feel closer to me on macOS. Although I don’t know how ugly they are under the hood. Edit: What does LAF stand for?

LAF stands for "look and feel", which is basically Java's name for "UI theme". Another fun fact: Cocoa had official Java bindings at some point!

Re: Show HN: Lite – A small, fast text editor

#150

Post by astrobe_ »

SahAssar wrote: post #122
rhlsthrm wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you make WASM apps using js toolkits that compiles to native desktop yet? Seems like that will be a huge step forward from electron apps.

Sure, as native as any language that runs in a VM. There is no reason a WASM app can or can't be any more or less native than something running on lua (like in this case), jvm or anything else. People don't use Electron to get a js runtime, they use it to get a web-like runtime. Any javascript (including WASM) app can run without electron in either node or in the bundled runtimes that OSX/Windows/Gnome/Whatever has,…

Yes, and there is no reason you can't have a cow as a pet because they have pointy ears and a tail, like cats. It seems you've lost your way, my friend.
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