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Show HN: Fastn, a JavaScript tool for building user interfaces

by korynunn on 7/1/15, 3:05 PM with 38 comments

• by keedot on 7/1/15, 5:07 PM

  I never like to criticize when someone creates something new. But decades of professional experience (having seen this concept come and go repeatedly over the years), taught me that HTML is your friend. I inherited a project that uses this concept, and there is no maintenance. Not because it's stable, but because it's more delicate than a faberge egg, so we never ever ever touch it.

  I'm sure for some small projects with very infrequent layout changes, this could be nice to work with. But for any app of sufficient complexity, keep your markup out of your code be it through DOM construction or in string HTML. (React being the one implementation that MAY prove to be the exception to prove the rule, though it's too early to tell at this point).

• by kowdermeister on 7/1/15, 3:53 PM

  "Nothin to see here! Check out index.js"

  Bad sign for me. There's many valid reasons to have a markup available for we applications. Embedding layout this deep into code is just messy for me. The best acceptable way (for me) so far is React.

• by korynunn on 7/1/15, 3:19 PM

  Huh.. Github seems to be stripping newlines from the .js sources :/.. It's 1am here, I'll fix that tomorrow.

• by mc_hammer on 7/1/15, 3:13 PM

  i like this. data binding without some html hybrid. animations... nice test app. you did a lot right.

  ill try this out :)

• by finnn on 7/1/15, 5:05 PM

  Mixed Content: The page at 'https://korynunn.github.io/fastn/' was loaded over HTTPS, but requested an insecure stylesheet 'http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Roboto:400,300,100'. This request has been blocked; the content must be served over HTTPS.

  Can we stopped with the mixed content and go full HTTPS already?

• by yellowapple on 7/1/15, 6:55 PM

  This might be classified as a "nailgun" rather than a "framework" if the only thing I'm nailing is paper to cardboard. The whole "Nothin to see here! Check out index.js" indicates to me that this is the precise opposite of a solution to the problem of more and more sites relying exclusively on piles and piles of Javascript with zero regard for accessibility, privacy (by making the site useless for those who disable Javascript to that effect), performance, etc.

• by fiatjaf on 7/2/15, 11:13 PM

  This seems like a pain to write, and even harder to read.

  What are the advantages in comparison to virtual DOM based frameworks out there?