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Ask HN: What novel tools are you using to write web sites/apps?

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Re: Ask HN: What novel tools are you using to write web sites/apps?

#151

Post by tdfirth »

alpaca128 wrote: post #145
tdfirth wrote: post #138

I'm currently working on a PaaS product called fold.sh (very early days). One thing I'm using that I've seen crop up on this thread is tailwindcss... I've not used it before but I'm really enjoying it so far. It's not a panacea by any means - it makes no attempt to help you organise your CSS or make it modular so you need to 'bring your own discipline'. For example, it's fairly easy to end up with inconsistent design…

> That probably says more about me than CSS but I'm having a blast. No, that probably is just how CSS is - a pile of decisions based on obsolete or incorrect assumptions that cannot be allowed to change due to backward compatibility. To me Tailwind is just a wrapper that's more reasonable for modern webdesign. Just like TypeScript doesn't change how you're still running JS but it's more pleasant to work with.

Interesting analogy to TS (which I'm also a fan of). I hadn't really thought about it like that but I think there is truth to it.

As you say, the fact is that we've got all of these standards that can't be be changed without breaking the web. Those standards were also first created for a different time, so it's not surprising that some assumptions turned out to be poor.

As a result, we've ended up in a place where tools treat those standards as compilation targets. This isn't a bad thing per se but it does lead to a lot of complexity in the tool chain.

I think part of why I like tailwind is that it almost feels like I'm using plain old CSS. I get the same amount of flexibility (as much as I need anyway), but I don't feel like there is some great abstraction in between me and the styles I want the framework to produce. At the same time, it's quicker and easier to use.

Anyway, I'm aware it's a pretty divisive tool. I see a lot of strong opinions about it on HN!

EDIT: grammar

Re: Ask HN: What novel tools are you using to write web sites/apps?

#152

Post by leipert »

Just finished working on the first iteration of a website for my mom. I didn’t want to deal with a full classical CMS and maintain Databases and such, especially as my experience with wordpress, PHP and typo3 has faded a little bit.

My mom’s website is basically a directory of old mansions in former eastern Prussia. Site is in German: https://gutshaeuser-ostpreussen.de

Anyhow Stack chosen:

Backend/CMS as a Service: https://prismic.io/ which is really great because it has an easy user interface that supports drafts, media, i18n (planning a polish version of the website) and defining custom types for pages which is great to force my mom to enter data consistently.

At first I used their SDK to simply query the data and rendered the Page while writing my own static site generator. Obviously very tedious. Since then I have moved away from that and landed on Nuxt which works well for me, because it allows me to iterate faster. Nuxt also supports rendering static pages https://nuxtjs.org/blog/going-full-static/. All of the JavaScript bits are basically progressive enhancements.

The page is then deployed via GitLab pages. Every time my mom changes a page, a webhook triggers a build of the Site.

What really eases my mind is the ability to simply backup all the data entered, as simple JSON files. So I don’t feel like there is any big vendor lock in with Prismic.

Re: Ask HN: What novel tools are you using to write web sites/apps?

#153

Post by secran »

Some languages written in c/q/j, pure css/js, is often only a few hundred lines of a project, I do not use a database, or rarely encounter the need for a database, sqlite/kdb is very easy. You can try my website, https://flashlo.com. The back-end code is probably no more than a hundred lines, and the front end is a single page. I don't like vdom. They cover up a lot of details about how things run.

Re: Ask HN: What novel tools are you using to write web sites/apps?

#154

Post by hypertele-Xii »

I worked as a full-stack developer up until 7 years ago. Evaluating different options for my new website, I ended up just using what I'm familiar with: raw, vanilla PHP, HTML, CSS, and JS. Eliminates the need for any faff like server management on my part; PHP-enabled hosting is cheap and easy. No frameworks, just PHP. Not that novel, I know.

There's a stark difference in research and production in terms of output, for me. If I wanna get stuff done I have to think less in terms of the newest, coolest thing and just use the right tool for the job.

Edit: Wrote some details on the design and implementation [1]

[1] https://hypertele.fi/ec997be8c5933e87

Re: Ask HN: What novel tools are you using to write web sites/apps?

#155

Post by secran »

secran wrote: post #153

Some languages written in c/q/j, pure css/js, is often only a few hundred lines of a project, I do not use a database, or rarely encounter the need for a database, sqlite/kdb is very easy. You can try my website, https://flashlo.com . The back-end code is probably no more than a hundred lines, and the front end is a single page. I don't like vdom. They cover up a lot of details about how things run.

In addition, I still don't understand the benefits of this thing for serverless. Most of my personal projects actually don't have the problem of splitting resources and don't have the opportunity to use something from serverless. I use a lot of docker in my development process because it makes it very easy for me to deploy. A project, a very small proportion of memory, fast speed, less than 100 lines of code, this is where I feel the most comfortable.

Re: Ask HN: What novel tools are you using to write web sites/apps?

#156

Post by cies »

cloogshicer wrote: post #136
cies wrote: post #95

Elm + elm-ui[1] (dont worry about CSS so much) + generated Elm client lib from GraphQL schema + Hasura (GraphQL over Postgres) + Postgres => strong type safety from db schema to frontend with SPA-first workflow; possibly add ReactAdmin[2] to the mix if that sort of thing is needed. Rust + Actix + Yew (Rust browser framework compiling to WASM) => also verrrry nice vor SPA-first! Slightly more traditional: Kotlin and j…

As someone fairly new to elm: How do you mix Elm with something like react-admin? Do you set up an elm SPA and embed the react part as a custom element? Or do you go the other way around, having the main App be JS controlled and only some components be an embedded elm App?

No mixing. react-admin serves as a quick standalone admin interface.

Re: Ask HN: What novel tools are you using to write web sites/apps?

#157

Post by williamdclt »

DanHulton wrote: post #11

I built Nodewood: https://nodewood.com I really enjoy NodeJS/Vue for web apps, but I got sick of having to connect together all the packages from scratch each time, set up ESLint, testing, database connections, write the user auth/management, all that common stuff. So instead, I put together a boilerplate with all my common practices and basic app features. I figure, it ultimately saves me time on all future web apps…

My ex-company was an web agency, we were spinning out new projects every few weeks. I developped a "project generator" (more dynamic than a boilerplate) that would create a full project with Django-React-ReactNative-Postgres, with the Terraform configuration to deploy to AWS. Apparently it was huge for sales, and got projects starting on the right foot. You can probably make that into a full product!

Re: Ask HN: What novel tools are you using to write web sites/apps?

#158

Post by secran »

secran wrote: post #153

Some languages written in c/q/j, pure css/js, is often only a few hundred lines of a project, I do not use a database, or rarely encounter the need for a database, sqlite/kdb is very easy. You can try my website, https://flashlo.com . The back-end code is probably no more than a hundred lines, and the front end is a single page. I don't like vdom. They cover up a lot of details about how things run.

The proportion of mysql is actually very high, maybe a few hundred megabytes of memory, if we use files, etc., in fact, the proportion of memory will not exceed a few meters. I prefer tools that are fast, consume less resources, develop fewer lines of code, and are not overpackaged. Many tools completely cover up the details, causing you to learn exactly the concepts created by these tools. I hate this kind of thing very much now, and of course, if teamwork is needed, it may still be useful.

Re: Ask HN: What novel tools are you using to write web sites/apps?

#159

Post by spiderfarmer »

hypertele-Xii wrote: post #154

I worked as a full-stack developer up until 7 years ago. Evaluating different options for my new website, I ended up just using what I'm familiar with: raw, vanilla PHP, HTML, CSS, and JS. Eliminates the need for any faff like server management on my part; PHP-enabled hosting is cheap and easy. No frameworks, just PHP. Not that novel, I know. There's a stark difference in research and production in terms of output, f…

I only made small changes to my workflow over the last 10 years. My productivity is way above average.

Re: Ask HN: What novel tools are you using to write web sites/apps?

#160

Post by BilalBudhani »

I have been enjoying building apps with https://hotwire.dev (server-side rendered with JS sprinkled on top) after using React/Vue heavily in the past.

I'm amazed at how simpler & productive it has become to build apps without getting lost in the whole JS tool ecosystem.

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