Live data from Hacker News

Why is GitHub UI getting slower?

yoyo-code.com

71–80 of 123 posts

Re: Why is GitHub UI getting slower?

#71

There is a whole new paradigm in UX design now: get rid of immediate page changes and loading states and instead keep the user on the same page until things load, and show it when it's ready.

Modern browsers already do this by default with server-rendered pages. No JS hacks needed. (And the browser UI correctly indicates that it's in a loading state while it's loading.)

Re: Why is GitHub UI getting slower?

#72
Yes, even at the point where some items fail to render with proper style and the buttons don't work. I wish there were a GitHub frontend that used more basic HTML for it to work on older browsers and lower network speeds.

Re: Why is GitHub UI getting slower?

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s your first problem right there. A diff of that magnitude is too large periodt.

After all years of advancement in computing, and in the year 2025 it's not possible to show a 5000 lines diff anymore.

I just mean that if you are reviewing over 5k lines of code, it suggests your PR is too big and should have been broken up into smaller changes.

Re: Why is GitHub UI getting slower?

#75

I suffer it and that’s why I’m building https://githero.app Btw, I worked at GitHub for 3 years and they are very aware that slowness is a big issue throughout the whole product. There was a year long cross team effort to improve things but the main goals were not achieved IMO and it shows.

This looks pretty cool! Do you have a privacy policy?

Re: Why is GitHub UI getting slower?

#76
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right after Microsoft bought them, github got better, and started implementing long-requested features. (The open letter "dear github" or whatever was that was posted right before the takeover.) This is something more recent.

Yes, remember how copying anything from the code view would also copy the line numbers? It was a relatively small CSS fix, but took years! I never quite understood why this didn't get fixed before by the way, because it really wasn't that hard. Usually when $big_corp takes over $small_outfit things get worse instead of better, due to overbearing $big_corp policy, culture clashes, leadership not really understanding w…

Same thing about npm, btw.

Both the node service and the website

Re: Why is GitHub UI getting slower?

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After all years of advancement in computing, and in the year 2025 it's not possible to show a 5000 lines diff anymore.

I just mean that if you are reviewing over 5k lines of code, it suggests your PR is too big and should have been broken up into smaller changes.

What about when you're renaming a widely used type in a large codebase or any of the many other things that it makes no sense to attempt to break up into small changes? I completely understand a preference for well-structured smaller changes, but the "large change = doing it wrong" zealotry is misguided.
Post reply on HN