tetra VS shoelace-css

Then there are stack-specific libraries: StimulusReflex for Rails, Phoenix LiveView, Laravel Livewire, Unicorn and Tetra for Django, Blazor for .NET, … and the list goes on.

Unicorn is awesome, and I think most would agree that it's the Django communities answer to Livewire/Liveview/etc. Adam has built a brilliant project and the time he must dedicate to it is amazing!

Last year I had a month free and I had a go at building something for Django in this area, with a bunch of interesting ideas - built on Alpine.js, resumable server side component state, inline component templates. But sadly time is limited and I just can't spend the time needed to push it further. One day I may be able to pivot back to it: https://www.tetraframework.com/

There's a brilliant project called Django Unicorn that aims to be the equivalent of Laravel Livewire for Django. You should take a look.

https://www.django-unicorn.com/

That and HTMX + Alpine.js are a strong combination.

(I also had a bash at building a similar tool for Django called Tetra but unfortunately haven't had the time needed to commit to it: https://www.tetraframework.com)

Most full-stack applications separate frontend and backend code into distinct files; most web frameworks are built based on this structure. As the number of files and lines of code increases, it may increase the complexity of your codebase, thereby making it even more difficult to debug. The complexity caused by these separate files was minimized through the introduction of a framework called Tetra.

One of my apps built on the Django+HTMX stack got traction and no matter how much I loved using HTMX, I found it’s not feasible to keep a clean codebase (facilitating new developers on the team as well) with this stack.

[Tetra](https://www.tetraframework.com/) might be an alternative if you’re hell-bent on not using React.

But, if you want to ship quick, have a maintainable codebase in a technology a lot of devs are familiar with and have the power to instantly have an app for mobile (and buy yourself some time to build one in React Native; code is going to be similar to React.js), I’d recommend using React.

You can use Capacitor.js for instantly shipping a mobile app with your codebase that “just works”. Use Capgo for affordable codepush and you’re set!

But then again, HTMX all the way if you’re not building an app cause not everything is an “app”. At the same time, if you’re building an app with a framework unlike Phoenix, I don’t see why would not go ahead and use a decent JS framework. It seems to be getting a lot of hate and I don’t understand if it’s because of the inability to learn React or what.

tetra

Recently I found a web framework the sits on top of Django and is specifically designed to work with Alpine.js (tetraframework.com). What makes it stand out is that HTMX or Hotwire isn't needed, as Tetra takes care of it. (discussion on ycombinator)

HTMX gets all the hype right now, but there are other tools in the same vain, my favorite being Unpoly (https://unpoly.com). Together with Shoelace (https://shoelace.style) you get nice GUIs real fast, without the burden of complicated dependency management and build steps. Also, you don't have to write a lot of JS, just what is needed for small enhancements, as it was meant to be. Some might say the main drawback is the tight coupling to your backend. In my case, this is also the main benefit as it integrates perfectly with the backend framework (Django).

Hello HN,

I'm releasing Hyperdiv (https://hyperdiv.io), a framework for rapidly developing reactive browser UIs in Python, with immediate-mode syntax and using Shoelace (https://shoelace.style) as its built-in component system.

This short coding video will give you a good idea of what it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XJKfxaqvGE

I wrote a brief article about the motivation and approach: https://hyperdiv.io/intro.html

Hyperdiv doesn't aim to compete with serious full-stack frameworks. The core aim was to make it easy and fast to prototype apps and build UI-based tools. I was originally motivated by internal tools at work -- feeling the need to quickly put together UI-based tools to share with both technical and non-technical coworkers, without having to stand up and maintain a full internal stack.

This is my first major open source release. I really appreciate your feedback and support. - Marius

For example, all the following design systems can be used without tooling (some of them provide ready-to-use bundles, others can be used through import maps): Google's Material Web, Microsoft's Fluent UI, IBM's Carbon, Adobe's Spectrum, Nordhealth's Nord, Shoelace, etc.

Here's what this looks like - note that I'm using Shoelace components for styling purposes.

There are lots of open-source design systems built with Lit. Shoelace is a popular component set that you might check out: https://github.com/shoelace-style/shoelace There are many others...

Would it help if we listed more open source projects on our site?

Because of our focus on components and the fact that you really can use just about any libraries and scaffolding for apps, we don't really have an app starter kit, but it's something we've talked about.

I'm really excited about all this, and it makes me have some faith in the web again. I think that Lit is a step in the right direction especially the ability to do SSR / SSG and hydrate a web page. Hopefully 🤞 Shoelace can get SSR running, which is currently one hurdle, but I think it is achievable.