Show HN: I rewrote my Mac Electron app in Rust (app went from 1GB to 172MB)

1. napi-rs

   1 40 6,792 9.7 Rust

   A framework for building compiled Node.js add-ons in Rust via Node-API

   

   Haven't touched Tauri because of the cross platform issues. The major appeal with Electron to me is the exact control over the browser. I'm curious about Rust integration though. I'm guessing they're doing something that provides better DX over something like https://github.com/napi-rs/napi-rs?

2. SurveyJS

   surveyjs.io featured

   JavaScript Form Builder with No-Code UI & Built-In JSON Schema Editor. Keep full control over the data you collect and tailor the form builder’s entire look and feel to your users’ needs. SurveyJS works with React, Angular, Vue 3, and is compatible with any backend or auth system. Learn more.

   

3. typescript-go

   2 23 21,141 9.9 Go

   Staging repo for development of native port of TypeScript

   

   Beware the greenfield effect.

   I don’t want to comment on the technology choices specifically here, but in general the whole “we rewrote our app in X and now it’s better” is essentially a fact of life no matter the tech choices, at least for the first big rewrite.

   First, you’re going to make better technical choices overall. You know much better where the problems lie.

   Second, you’re rarely going to want to port over every bit of technical debt, bugs, or clunky UX decisions (with some exceptions [1]), so those things get fixed out of the gate.

   Finally, it’s simply invigorating to start from a (relatively) clean slate, so that added energy is going to feel good and leave you in a sort of freshly-mowed greenfield afterglow. This in turn will motivate you and improve your work.

   The greenfield effect happens even on smaller scales, especially when trying out a new language or framework, since you’re usually starting some new project with it.

   [1] A good example of the sort of rewrite that _does_ offer something like an apples-to-apples comparison is Microsoft’s rewrite of the TypeScript compiler (and type checker, and LSP implementation) from TypeScript to Go, since they are aiming for 1-to-1 compatibility, including bugs and quirks: https://github.com/microsoft/typescript-go

4. candle

   3 21 17,543 9.5 Rust

   Minimalist ML framework for Rust

   

5. Kreya

   4 28 318 2.8 JavaScript

   Kreya is a GUI client for REST and gRPC with innovative features for environments, authorizations and more.

   

   We are using system webviews for https://kreya.app (not Tauri, but a custom implementation) and the platform differences are seldom a problem...

   Polyfills fix most of the things and we are running automated end to end test on Linux, which catches most of the issues.

   IMO the most difficult thing is figuring out how far the users are behind with their webview version, mostly on Linux and macOS. Windows has done thinga right with their WebView2 implementation

6. dupeguru

   5 155 6,320 6.0 Python

   Find duplicate files

   

7. videoduplicatefinder

   6 34 2,423 6.4 C#

   Video Duplicate Finder - Crossplatform

   

8. electron-release-server

   7 5 2,152 1.6 JavaScript

   A fully featured, self-hosted release server for electron applications, compatible with auto-updater.

   

   I agree about dealing with Apple but having updates completely solved for us was a huge deal. We just didn't have the resources to solve this properly.

   This was an app offered for free to some customers of the company. If the app had been the main commercial product we would have obviously opted for a better solution than distributing through stores or using Squirrel.

   Back in 2018 we needed a server[1] that would notify Squirrel for the udpates. Squirrel worked ok on macOS but it was particularly bad on Windows. I don't remember the details... iirc Squirrel installed the actual executable in some weird folder and users would never be able to find the app if they deleted the link from the desktop.

   [1] https://github.com/ArekSredzki/electron-release-server

9. InfluxDB

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   InfluxDB – Built for High-Performance Time Series Workloads. InfluxDB 3 OSS is now GA. Transform, enrich, and act on time series data directly in the database. Automate critical tasks and eliminate the need to move data externally. Download now.

   

10. web-to-desktop-framework-comparison

    8 13 1,704 7.9 JavaScript

    An objective comparison of multiple frameworks that allow us to "transform" our web apps to desktop applications.

    

    https://github.com/Elanis/web-to-desktop-framework-compariso...

    Electron comes out looking impressive at runtime!

    Memory Usage - (Average of runs) Median of difference between system measured free memory before execution and during execution)

11. web-to-desktop-framework-compariso

    9 6 - -

    https://github.com/Elanis/web-to-desktop-framework-compariso...

    Electron comes out looking impressive at runtime!

    Memory Usage - (Average of runs) Median of difference between system measured free memory before execution and during execution)

12. cpmulator

    10 9 116 9.2 Go

    Z80-based CP/M emulator, in golang. Happily runs Zork, Microsoft BASIC, Turbo Pascal, Wordstar, etc.

    

    I wrote a summary of my issue on a github comment, and I guess I will try again

    https://github.com/skx/cpmulator/issues/234#issuecomment-291...

    But I'm not optimistic; all previous attempts at "identify the bug", "fix the bug", "highlight the area where the bug occurs" just turn into timesinks and failures.

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