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Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem

antjs.org

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Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem

#1

Post by theMackabu »

Hello HN!

I'm the author of Ant, a JavaScript ecosystem built around a runtime with its own JavaScript engine. Ant also includes a package manager, the ants.land package registry, a platform for deploying and hosting applications, and Ant Desktop for building native desktop apps with web technologies, similar to Electron.

The goal is for these pieces to work as one coherent platform while remaining compatible with the wider JavaScript ecosystem. It's still early, and I'd appreciate any feedback on the overall direction or what you'd like to see from an e2e alternative to the existing JavaScript stacks.

P.S. I’ve shared Ant here before as a runtime; since then, it has grown into the broader ecosystem you see today.

Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem
antjs.org

Re: Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem

#2

Post by Imustaskforhelp »

I have actually known* about Ant for some time from your previous submissions and its really interesting and I wish the project luck!

Do you think that Ant could be used to create a small index.html/css/js project into an desktop app minimally.

I currently found deno desktop which is pretty recent to be the easiest way of doing this for one of my projects (https://epub.mirror.forum) but I found there to be some issues within deno-desktop in terms of some features not working on the desktop app but I overall really like the idea of converting these files into desktop apps and I am wondering if ant could be suitable for that, so I am curious to hear what you think :-D

Re: Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem

#4

Post by douxx »

Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #2

I have actually known* about Ant for some time from your previous submissions and its really interesting and I wish the project luck! Do you think that Ant could be used to create a small index.html/css/js project into an desktop app minimally. I currently found deno desktop which is pretty recent to be the easiest way of doing this for one of my projects ( https://epub.mirror.forum ) but I found there to be some iss…

Ant desktop is currently in development, from what I recall http://ants.land/ant-desktop

Re: Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem

#5

Post by theMackabu »

Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #2

I have actually known* about Ant for some time from your previous submissions and its really interesting and I wish the project luck! Do you think that Ant could be used to create a small index.html/css/js project into an desktop app minimally. I currently found deno desktop which is pretty recent to be the easiest way of doing this for one of my projects ( https://epub.mirror.forum ) but I found there to be some iss…

just got the thing for you actually! literally just finished a stable version last night, https://www.npmjs.com/package/ant-desktop. WIP still, chromium only renderer backend but webview and other backends coming soon as well. no local ant install needed as libant is bundled, when CI finishes ill have windows/linux builds too

Re: Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem

#9

Post by Imustaskforhelp »

theMackabu wrote: post #5
Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #2

I have actually known* about Ant for some time from your previous submissions and its really interesting and I wish the project luck! Do you think that Ant could be used to create a small index.html/css/js project into an desktop app minimally. I currently found deno desktop which is pretty recent to be the easiest way of doing this for one of my projects ( https://epub.mirror.forum ) but I found there to be some iss…

just got the thing for you actually! literally just finished a stable version last night, https://www.npmjs.com/package/ant-desktop . WIP still, chromium only renderer backend but webview and other backends coming soon as well. no local ant install needed as libant is bundled, when CI finishes ill have windows/linux builds too

Oh great! it seems, that great thinkers think alike :-D

Good to see that you are already working on it though, Good luck and I will hopefully try to keep a keen eye on the project for my use-cases when I need something more flexible than rust iced applications but also having a small footprint. It's good to see more competition within this space so good luck with that!

Re: Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem

#10

Post by theMackabu »

Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #9
theMackabu wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

just got the thing for you actually! literally just finished a stable version last night, https://www.npmjs.com/package/ant-desktop . WIP still, chromium only renderer backend but webview and other backends coming soon as well. no local ant install needed as libant is bundled, when CI finishes ill have windows/linux builds too

Oh great! it seems, that great thinkers think alike :-D Good to see that you are already working on it though, Good luck and I will hopefully try to keep a keen eye on the project for my use-cases when I need something more flexible than rust iced applications but also having a small footprint. It's good to see more competition within this space so good luck with that!

:D
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