Nue.js is a new JavaScript framework focusing on extreme performance and minimal bundle size for complex web apps. It achieves this through a reactive core inspired by SolidJS and Svelte, compiling templates to optimized vanilla JavaScript, and offering built-in features like routing, state management, and SSR. The blog post demonstrates Nue's efficiency by showcasing a full-featured to-do MVC app with a bundle size smaller than a single React button, while maintaining excellent performance metrics. This makes it particularly suitable for situations where performance and low bandwidth consumption are critical, such as mobile-first development and slow networks.
The blog post, titled "Show HN: Nue – Apps lighter than a React button," introduces Nue, a new JavaScript framework designed for building large-scale web applications with a focus on extreme performance and minimal bundle size. The central claim is that Nue allows for the creation of applications that are remarkably lightweight, even exceeding the lightness of a single React button. This is achieved through several key architectural decisions and optimizations.
Firstly, Nue utilizes fine-grained reactivity, meaning that updates are incredibly precise and only affect the absolutely necessary parts of the DOM. This stands in contrast to more traditional virtual DOM approaches, which can lead to unnecessary re-renders and performance overhead. This granular reactivity is facilitated by a compiler that analyzes the code and optimizes updates to only the specific elements that have changed.
Secondly, Nue embraces a unique approach to component composition and state management. Instead of relying on complex hierarchies of components and data flow patterns, Nue promotes a more direct and streamlined method. This simplification helps reduce the overall complexity of the application and contributes to smaller bundle sizes. The post details how this lean approach improves development speed and maintainability, as developers need to manage less boilerplate code.
Furthermore, the post highlights the impressive size comparisons achieved with Nue. It showcases benchmarks comparing the bundle size of a Nue application to the equivalent implementation using React, demonstrating a substantial reduction in size. The author emphasizes the importance of minimal JavaScript payloads for improved page load times, especially on mobile devices and in areas with limited bandwidth. This focus on performance aims to provide a superior user experience.
Finally, the post asserts that Nue’s lightweight nature does not compromise developer experience. It emphasizes that the framework remains developer-friendly and provides a pleasant development environment. The post suggests that developers can build complex applications efficiently with Nue without sacrificing performance or maintainability. It concludes by inviting developers to explore Nue and contribute to its development, positioning it as a promising alternative to existing JavaScript frameworks for building high-performance web applications.
Summary of Comments ( 308 )
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43543241
Hacker News users discussed the performance benefits of Nue.js, particularly its small bundle size compared to React. Some expressed skepticism about the benchmark methodology and questioned whether the "lighter than a React button" claim held true in real-world scenarios. Others were interested in the framework's approach and appreciated its focus on simplicity and performance. Several commenters pointed out the difficulty of comparing frameworks based on microbenchmarks and emphasized the importance of overall developer experience and ecosystem maturity. The lack of TypeScript support was also mentioned as a potential drawback. A few users discussed the tradeoffs between using a smaller, less mature framework like Nue.js versus a more established option like React, Svelte, or Preact.
The Hacker News post "Show HN: Nue – Apps lighter than a React button" generated a moderate amount of discussion, with several commenters engaging with the premise of the framework being lighter than React.
Several users focused on the practicality and relevance of the comparison to a single React button. One commenter questioned the fairness and usefulness of comparing an entire framework to a single component of another, suggesting that a more appropriate comparison would be to a minimal React app. Another echoed this sentiment, pointing out that a button in React incorporates the entire React library, making the comparison somewhat misleading. This user suggested a more accurate metric would be to compare a basic "hello world" application in both frameworks.
The discussion also touched upon the perceived complexity introduced by the choice of Rust and WebAssembly. One user argued that the use of these technologies would increase the complexity of development and debugging, particularly for tasks like profiling, and questioned whether the performance benefits would outweigh these downsides. Another user expressed concern about the overall ecosystem surrounding WebAssembly and Rust for front-end development, highlighting the potential difficulties in integrating with existing JavaScript tooling and libraries. The comment also expressed concern for a smaller community which could lead to a lack of resources to fix issues.
Some commenters shifted the focus from the size comparison to the more general benefits of using Rust and WebAssembly for front-end frameworks. One user highlighted the potential for performance gains, while another pointed out that the claimed size reduction might not be the most significant advantage. This commenter suggested that the performance improvements, especially in computationally intensive applications, could be a more compelling selling point.
Others questioned the long-term viability of the project and the potential challenges of maintaining a Rust and WebAssembly based front-end framework. One commenter expressed concern about the learning curve and the potential difficulties in attracting and retaining developers familiar with these technologies.
Finally, a few commenters requested more concrete examples and demonstrations of the framework's capabilities beyond the basic comparisons presented. They expressed interest in seeing real-world applications built with Nue to better assess its performance and practicality. One commenter asked about the status of a to-do list application that was mentioned in the past and how that would stack up in comparison to different implementations.