IdeaWell

Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

High-Level Is the Goal

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

The three most prevalent themes in this discussion are the widespread dissatisfaction with modern web framework performance, the contentious debate over the legacy and efficiency of jQuery, and the significant demand for a better native cross-platform desktop UI framework.

1. Discontent with Modern Web Framework Performance and Abstraction

A dominant theme is the belief that contemporary web frameworks, particularly React, have introduced significant performance overhead and complexity, leading to sluggish user experiences that feel worse than older, simpler web applications.

  • jbritton contrasts the development paradigms: "The old Reddit had to first construct the DOM and then for every state change, determine what DOM nodes need to change... The other alternative is to realize that constructing a DOM from any arbitrary state is pretty much the same as constructing it from initial state... The first Reddit can be fast, but you have to manage all the updates. The second is slow, but easier to develop."
  • moffkalast directly criticizes React and the performance regression: "React is basically synonymous with horrible lag and extreme bloat to me. Its name is the highest form of irony."
  • Escapado laments the trend of prioritizing features over performance, blaming the ease of adding overhead: "We 'gained'... engineers not needing to think about performance to get a feature out, which absolutely lowers the bar to entry, high level abstractions and ux and visual bells and whistles..."
  • fullstackchris pushes back against the narrative that frameworks are inherently slower, placing blame on developer skill: "The frameworks have NOT gotten slower! God I hate Hackernews sometimes... whats really going on is actually that not a single dev reads the / improvements / learns how to actually use the framework."

2. The jQuery Debate: A Revealing Point of Contention

The historical role and technical merits of jQuery sparked a significant side-debate, highlighting a fundamental tension between the simplicity and performance of older, low-level approaches versus the complexity of modern abstractions.

  • cellis initially attacks jQuery's legacy, framing it as a poorly optimized precursor to modern frameworks: "the article spends a lot of time glorifying jquery and not enough on what a horrible, no good, unoptimized mess of a framework jquery was."
  • throwup238 provides a technical critique of jQuery's performance, calling it "the PHP of Javascript": "$() CSS parsing and DOM traversal was way slower than querySelector or getElementById... Every $('.my-class') created wrapped objects with overhead... The deeper the method chaining got the worse the performance penalty."
  • twelvedogs defends jQuery's historical context and impact, arguing its later "dead weight" status was a sign of its success: "putting jquery into a site now would be insane but at the time it pushed forward the web by quite a leap... a lot of the shit jquery did was good and people built it into the browser because of that."

3. The Unmet Need for a Superior Native Cross-Platform Desktop UI Framework

A recurring and passionate theme is the lack of a truly excellent native cross-platform desktop UI framework, with Qt often described as the "least worst" option, driving hope for newer alternatives and revealing a deep frustration with the current landscape.

  • cyber_kinetist makes a direct call to action, summarizing the perceived gap: "someone has to make a native cross-platform desktop UI framework that doesn't suck. (Yeah Qt exists, but it really sucks...)"
  • ragall rejects the entire concept of a massive, all-encompassing framework like Qt, preferring a modular toolkit: "I very much reject a 'desktop framwork'. Qt has its own abstractions for everything... It forces one to build the entire app in C++... I want a graphical toolkit: a simple library that can be started in a thread and allows me to use whatever language runtime I want."
  • ogoffar (a developer on the Slint framework) directly responds to this demand, positioning their project as a solution: "This is exactly what we're trying to do with Slint... It’s a native, cross-platform UI framework for desktop and embedded (Rust/C++/Python/JS), with no browser runtime."

🚀 Project Ideas

[Cross-Platform Native GUI Toolkit with IDE Integration]

Summary

  • [Creates a modern, lightweight, cross-platform GUI toolkit (desktop) that integrates a Rust-based IDE for visual UI design, profiling, and "hot reload" of native code.]
  • [Solves the frustration with Qt being bloated, the lack of tooling for low-level GUI dev, and the desire for a unified workflow similar to web dev tools.]

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Desktop application developers (C++, Rust, Go) who dislike Qt's complexity but want native performance and tooling.
Core Feature A visual designer that outputs declarative UI code (like Slint/QML) and a Rust-based IDE that provides real-time performance profiling, layout debugging, and hot-reload capabilities for native apps.
Tech Stack Rust (core engine), OpenGL/Vulkan (rendering), system libraries for native widgets where appropriate.
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue-ready: "Pro" license for the visual IDE and advanced debugging tools; open-source core library.

Notes

  • [Addresses the direct request: "someone has to make a native cross-platform desktop UI framework that doesn't suck" (cyber_kinetist) and the criticism that Qt "really sucks" because of its massive size and licensing issues.]
  • [Directly counters the "web is good enough" argument by providing a native alternative with tooling rivaling browser dev tools, a gap explicitly noted by users complaining about the lack of "low-level" tooling.]

[Low-Level Language "Quick Start" Platform]

Summary

  • [A centralized, interactive platform offering "MDN-like" documentation and "W3Schools-like" tutorials for low-level languages (C, Zig, Rust), featuring an in-browser WASM compiler and debugger.]
  • [Solves the unmet need for accessible learning resources mentioned in the discussion, where users lamented that low-level languages lack the "great working repl" and "good tutorials" of web dev.]

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Web developers curious about systems programming, students, and educators.
Core Feature Interactive code sandboxes with step-through debugging, memory visualization (stack vs. heap), and curated learning paths that mimic the ease of web development tutorials.
Tech Stack WASM (for in-browser compilation), React/TypeScript (for the UI), Rust (for the backend sandboxing).
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Hobby: Free and open source. Potential for premium "guided courses" or certification later.

Notes

  • [Addresses user "NooneAtAll3's" frustration with inaccessible documentation and the lack of a central "Handmade" entry point.]
  • [Fulfills the desire expressed by "bvisness" that "low-level tools" should be easier to use and learn, directly challenging the notion that they have to be harder than web dev.]

[Web Framework State Update Profiler]

Summary

  • [A browser extension and CLI tool that visualizes state updates and component re-renders in real-time for React, Vue, and Svelte, identifying "waste" where the framework updates DOM nodes that didn't change.]
  • [Solves the specific pain point of "slow" web apps (like New Reddit) where users felt "200ms to collapse a comment" is unacceptable, but lacked tools to easily diagnose the framework overhead.]

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Frontend developers using modern JS frameworks who care about performance but struggle to optimize "irrelevant updates."
Core Feature Visual dependency graph of state/components, highlighting "ghost updates" (re-renders that produce no DOM changes) and suggesting optimizations (e.g., memoization, selectors).
Tech Stack Browser Extension APIs, JavaScript, Framework-specific hooks (React DevTools hook, Vue API).
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: Freemium model (basic profiling free, advanced comparison tools and CI integration paid).

Notes

  • [Directly addresses the frustration voiced by "bot_user_7a2b99" and "throwup238" regarding the lag in basic UI tasks like collapsing comments.]
  • [Validates the point made by "MrJohz" that high-level abstractions can be performant if optimized correctly, providing the necessary tooling to do so without requiring a rewrite in C++.]

[Modular "Good Parts" Qt Wrapper]

Summary

  • [A wrapper library for Qt that exposes only the modern, lightweight "good parts" (like QML for UI) while stripping away the massive legacy dependencies and complex build system, usable from lightweight languages like Python or Go.]
  • [Solves the specific critique from "ragall" and "greatgib" who like Qt's capabilities but hate its bloat, licensing complexity, and forced C++ ecosystem.]

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Developers who need cross-platform native GUIs but want to avoid the Qt toolchain and C++ complexity.
Core Feature A build system that generates minimal Qt binaries or bindings, allowing developers to write UI logic in a modern syntax and connect it to non-Qt application logic (Rust/Go/Python).
Tech Stack C++ (Qt core), Rust (for bindings/wrapper), Zig (for build system to simplify dependency management).
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue-ready: Commercial support and licensing for enterprise teams wanting to integrate Qt into non-C++ stacks.

Notes

  • [Addresses the consensus that Qt is "miles ahead" but still sucks because it forces a specific language and massive dependencies (cyber_kinetist).]
  • [Provides a pragmatic alternative to waiting for "PanGUI" or "Slint" to mature, offering a way to use existing mature Qt rendering engines without the "shitty license" and "undecipherable documentation" complaints (greatgib).]

Read Later