imba VS SQLpage

Imba. The best web programming language ever made.

https://imba.io/

I agree. I was looking for the same thing.

They’re not easy to create but side by side code/result demos like the ones I saw on https://imba.io/ make it very clear on what I’ll be getting into as a developer.

You might get away with Svelte (not Sveltekit) here since it compiles down to javascript. Another fun framework to try out for this might be https://imba.io/, which also has an option to compile things down to pure HTML, CSS & JS (plus it’s very fun to work with).

I've been using Svelte exclusively for the past 3 years or so. I love it and will keep using it as my main solution for interactivity. It's fast to use and execute, produces small apps, and it's extremely economical in how you express components.

The confusion the author expresses with $: reactive statements and store auto subscription with the $ are unwarranted IMO. It's really just a lack of familiarity but this kind of stuff becomes intuitive very quickly.

My criticism of Svelte is rather that they haven't gone deep enough into the compiler-based approach.

Would be great if there were something like .svelteStore files where you had all the automatic reactivity tracking without having to use a component. Or some kind of improvements into writing styles. With a compiler you can do anything you want and I think Svelte has been a bit timid, maybe to not scare people away.

For example Imba[1] also bet on a compiler-based approach (years before Svelte existed) and created their own language/framework/compiler. They have come up with amazing solutions to many problems. It's a shame they bet on Ruby aesthetics though and also that they aren't investing into marketing/docs.

Of course, one might argue that using a compiler is a bad idea for a number of reasons. And yeah of course there are objective issues to any approach, but you have to pick your poison. All in all, Svelte has made me tremendously productive compared to using other solutions for years (React, Vue, Mithril, Inferno, etc).

I will say though that I would rather use a solution that doesn't have any reactivity at all. Mithril and Imba have this concept of just "redrawing the whole thing" like a game GUI without having to worry about reactivity. Cognitively speaking, no reactivity is the best mental model IMO. With any reactive solution, it's very easy to fall into complex reactive dependencies which can be hard to track. The author of Imba has a video from 2018 where he talks about this[2].

[1] https://imba.io/

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwoApTLvRdQ

A code snippet showing a simple program right on the home page and "selling" whatever features makes it special would go a long way. It's quite off-putting to have to delve deep into a guide in order to get a feel for a language.

Some examples done right:

https://lfe.io

https://elixir-lang.org

https://imba.io

https://ocaml.org

At the same time, my heart is kind of in the web stuff and I find it a lot more exciting personally so it's hard for me to leave. You can do so much more with web tech and all the new ideas Tcoming from it and the pace it's developing is really . I just don't understand why React is becoming the standard when it's a complete nightmare compared to where we should be. I mean, this is literally insane, especially when things like Svelte exist - or even better, Imba. The day Imba becomes the standard is the day I love web dev again.

Saving further clicks:

> SQLPage is a tool that allows you to build websites using nothing more than SQL queries. You write simple text files containing SQL queries, SQLPage runs them on your database, and renders the results as a website.

The 22-line "TinyTweeter" example at 28:45 [0] in the video is a good overview - perhaps better than anything currently on the homepage/docs: https://github.com/lovasoa/SQLpage/blob/main/examples/tiny_t...

Also, based on a couple of discussions [1][2] it seems like SQLPage has the potential to combine well with HTMX too. The two projects definitely share a similar philosophy.

[0] https://youtu.be/mXdgmSdaXkg?t=1721

[1] https://github.com/lovasoa/SQLpage/issues/84#issuecomment-19...

[2] https://github.com/lovasoa/SQLpage/pull/175#issuecomment-187...

I am currently looking for a solution to run automated tests on a sql website generator I am working on ( https://sql.ophir.dev )

I wanted to use hurl (https://hurl.dev/), but Bruno's UI seems to be useful while developing the tests... Has someone tried both ? Which is better for automated testing, including when the response type is html and not json?

Full fledged BI tools like Superset and Metabase are amazing for their intended use cases.

But they may be an overkill if your primary use case is to infrequently build semi-interactive reports for non-technical end-users and your use cases are are mostly covered by standard graphs & tables. Esp. so if you are familiar with SQL and have access to the underlying data source. Two nifty utilities I have found to be very useful for latter kind of use cases are SQLPage and Evidence.

They make it very convenient to whip out some SQL and convert that to a neat professional looking web ui that can be forwarded to an end user. In case of Evidence it is a statically generated site, and in case of SQLPage it is a web app that connects to a live database.

SQLPage: https://sql.ophir.dev/

Evidence: https://evidence.dev

I feel obligated to add a shameless plug here. The idea is very close to a project I presented at pgconf.eu last week: SQLPage

https://sql.ophir.dev/

SQLPage has the same goal as postgrest+htmx, but is a little bit higher level. It let's you build your application using prepackaged components you can invoke directly from SQL, without having to write any HTML, CSS, or JS.

It would be great if someone could open a github issue with reproduction steps and maybe a screenshot: https://github.com/lovasoa/SQLpage/issues

The worst I'm able to get when manually disabling the cache and simulating a slow 3G connection is this: a blank page first, then text in the browser's font, then the text re-renders with the right font, then the icons load. The user should never see completely unstyled content.

The site uses "font-display: fallback" so this happens only on slow network connections. If the font loads fast enough, then the fallback never appears.

The official website for SQLPage (https://sql.ophir.dev/) is written in SQLPage.

The source code is here: https://github.com/lovasoa/SQLpage/tree/main/examples/offici...

The site also links to this little collaborative game written in SQLPage: https://conundrum.ophir.dev/

The github README has code snippets and associated screenshots: https://github.com/lovasoa/SQLpage#examples

There is also an official repl.it that you can fork to quickly try it online without having to download anything: https://replit.com/@pimaj62145/SQLPage

And SQLPage cloud is coming: https://sql.ophir.dev/your-first-sql-website/hosted.sql

Hey HN community!

I'll be making my first ever presentation at a large tech conference at pgconf.eu this December, where I'll be presenting the SQLPage webapp micro-framework ( https://sql.ophir.dev/ ). I'm eager to make a lasting impression and deliver a presentation that truly resonates with the audience at the conference, who probably knows more about postgres than I do.

That's where I could use your insights. What makes a good tech talk in your eyes? Do you like seeing mind-blowing demos, deep dives into code, compelling storytelling, or something else entirely ?

If you have any specific advice, tips, or ideas for structuring a tech conference presentation, I'm all ears. I want to ensure that my presentation is not just informative but also an experience to remember.

Thank you in advance for your guidance and suggestion !

When I see that, I always wonder whether this is part of the business plan of the people who distribute open source software for free, with a paid hosted version. There is some kind of a conflict of interest: the easier the software is to install and operate, the less attractive the hosted version.

I am working on an open-source software with a hosted version myself ( https://sql.ophir.dev ). It's a website builder, and I'm trying to make ease of deployment and operations a competitive advantage, which is marketed on the home page. But it may be idealistic to ask the same of others. My audience is mostly people who will have to operate the software themselves, whereas in most other domains, the people making the choice to use the software and the people who will then have to operate it are not the same.