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Show HN: Solid – An Ultra Quick, WC Friendly, Modern JavaScript UI Library (github.com/ryansolid)
2 points by ryansolid on March 28, 2019 | hide | past | favorite | 3 comments


Any feedback is very much appreciated. I know no-one is asking for another JavaScript UI library. But I've built the features and "proven" the unparalleled performance. No empty promises here. Now I'm at your mercy.


Looks like a great almost-drop-in replacement for React. Have you performed any benchmarks for performance against React or other VDOM based libraries? Have you had any issues with debugging when something goes wrong in a component?


Yes I have been very inspired by portions of React and when they announced Hooks suddenly it converged with what I was already doing. Since then I set out to bring feature parity even though I had to solve problems completely differently. Of course there are some pretty big key differences both in render cycle and how data is passed around.

I've done a number of benchmarks that are linked off the Github page. The most notable is the JS Framework benchmark. Chrome 73 had a bit of a regression that slowed down Solid a bit comparatively but it's still right up there. Here the latest results: https://krausest.github.io/js-framework-benchmark/current.ht.... You should see Solid in the 5th slot around a lot of reference (basic JS implementations). If you look right you will see ivi the fastest VDOM library, and if you keep scrolling you will the more popular libraries.

Debugging is a different beast because the rendering isn't top down and the library produces native DOM instructions. As some one familiar with the imperative DOM the lack of abstraction for debugging I feel welcome. I can literally drop in on el.textContent = state.name or in an effect and see when updates happen. The compiler writes the updates in such a way that it shows on the surface in your implementation code rather than deep in the library for simple updates (reconciliation is buried). This makes most things easy to access for debugging.

Thank you for the comments I definitely going to spend some time investigating what debugging experience makes sense for a library like this but still has familiarity for the VDOM crowd.




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