Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

NPMX – a fast, modern browser for the NPM registry

npmx.dev

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 76 posts

Re: NPMX – a fast, modern browser for the NPM registry

#41

Post by ricardobeat »

skydhash wrote: post #11
65 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean are we really arguing over milliseconds here? I have never in my life had the thought "NPM search is too slow, I need a faster solution" I have had the thought "NPM search sorted by downloads this week is giving me irrelevant packages" - but I'm not sure this tool solves that.

My only pain point, that I solved with a few lines of elisp, was to go to npmjs, to find the repo link for my dependencies. What's in `node_modules` may be compiled to an inscrutable blob and it's rare to find good library docs.

Life-changing: ghub.io/

No idea where I found this but I’ve been using for many, many years.

Re: NPMX – a fast, modern browser for the NPM registry

#42

Post by isodev »

xhcuvuvyc wrote: post #27
hdjrudni wrote: post #3

But why? npmjs.com is not slow and not something I need to interact with very often. And npmjs.com is still the authority when it comes to publishing packages, no? So I'd still have to use it.

Because they wanted to and Claude didn't tell them not to. Why even ask questions like this at this point.

Haha this. I understand the appeal of "but I can probably roll my own" and "Oh that's a good idea, let's jump into coding" but pre-vibe bots, the effort required would make folks stop and think before jumping into it - is it really a good idea? should I do it just because I can? what problem is it really solving? Who will use this? etc.

Re: NPMX – a fast, modern browser for the NPM registry

#43

Post by port11 »

xhcuvuvyc wrote: post #27
hdjrudni wrote: post #3

But why? npmjs.com is not slow and not something I need to interact with very often. And npmjs.com is still the authority when it comes to publishing packages, no? So I'd still have to use it.

Because they wanted to and Claude didn't tell them not to. Why even ask questions like this at this point.

The prolific inventor’s dilemma. But to be fair developers have been making whatever they want since the beginning. Sometimes there doesn’t have to be a ‘why?’.

Re: NPMX – a fast, modern browser for the NPM registry

#44

Post by networkcat »

I don't think npmx has better UI/UX than npmjs.com. It could even be said to be worse. The npmx page doesn't have any other colors, it's all gray, and the page has too many elements that are too cluttered. You can compare these two pages:

https://npmx.dev/package/vue

https://www.npmjs.com/package/vue

Decide for yourself which UX is better.

Re: NPMX – a fast, modern browser for the NPM registry

#45

Post by riedel »

hdjrudni wrote: post #3

But why? npmjs.com is not slow and not something I need to interact with very often. And npmjs.com is still the authority when it comes to publishing packages, no? So I'd still have to use it.

https://github.com/npmx-dev/npmx.dev has a comparison

Re: NPMX – a fast, modern browser for the NPM registry

#46

Post by smarx007 »

networkcat wrote: post #44

I don't think npmx has better UI/UX than npmjs.com. It could even be said to be worse. The npmx page doesn't have any other colors, it's all gray, and the page has too many elements that are too cluttered. You can compare these two pages: https://npmx.dev/package/vue https://www.npmjs.com/package/vue Decide for yourself which UX is better.

I think that npmjs uses colors too much to the point of irrelevance. Why are links in the README red? Why is the code tab red? Why is the download graph purple?

Compare your npmx link to vue to https://npmx.dev/package/node-red-contrib-rtc-alert-node . This package uses deprecated and vulnerable deps and npmx correctly uses color to draw attention to it. And because the npmx page is normally monotone, the use of color actually draws your attention.

Regarding clutter - I agree.

Re: NPMX – a fast, modern browser for the NPM registry

#47

Post by tmvnty »

pier25 wrote: post #14
hdjrudni wrote: post #3

But why? npmjs.com is not slow and not something I need to interact with very often. And npmjs.com is still the authority when it comes to publishing packages, no? So I'd still have to use it.

I almost never use npmjs.com. When I do it’s just to click on the repo link.

I just do ghub.io/

Re: NPMX – a fast, modern browser for the NPM registry

#49

Post by Sammi »

danielroe wrote: post #33

npmx maintainer here! a few answers to questions i see: we haven’t launched yet! we’re building openly but aiming for march 3. as is par for the course, hn gets the scoop. i made the first commit two weeks ago, so it’s very new. but we’ve had 900+ PRs and 170+ contributors in the last fortnight… because this is something we care about. having said that, i’m taking notes about what is and isn’t intuitive npmjs remains…

The visual hierarchy seems very flat and inaccessible to me. Everything is monochrome and looks too similar. I have a hard time differentiating between sections.

There are many ways to get more visual hierarchy and I wish you make use of them.

Re: NPMX – a fast, modern browser for the NPM registry

#50

Post by insin »

skybrian wrote: post #20

Here's one feature they have that seems important: > It's good npmx.dev shows git and https dependencies. I still think it's crazy npmjs.org doesn't. https://bsky.app/profile/dsherret.bsky.social/post/3mer2diwj...

A clear miss from npmjs.org on that, but I'm trying to think of when I've ever used it as a primary source for what dependencies a package has, or really even... anything at all. I only end up on it if I'm in a hurry and accidentally click an npmjs link instead of (usually) a GitHub link after using a search engine.
Post reply on HN