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Nova – Erlang Web Framework (novaframework.org)
129 points by taure 1610 days ago
6 comments

This is purely conjecture on my part, but a beginner-friendly web framework was a barrier for adoption for Erlang, and I'm really excited to see Nova continue to grow.

If the moving background of the Nova website is so distracting that you can't bare to explore the rest of the framework, here are some other links to explore:

- HexDocs: https://hexdocs.pm/nova/quick-start.html

- Github: https://github.com/novaframework/nova

- Erlang Forums: https://erlangforums.com/c/erlang-frameworks/nova-forum/65

- Erlang Slack: https://erlef.org/slack-invite/erlanger

Long story short, get involved with Erlang (and Elixir)! They're both awesome, can't recommend them enough.

Thank you. If you have any questions it is only to reach out and we try to help as much as possible.
As someone following beam stuff from a distance: why would I pick this over elixir/Phoenix?
I would say run with Nova if you want to code Erlang. If you want to code Elixir choose Phoenix. In the end both are based on Cowboy.

We started to create Nova from the lack of frameworks on the Erlang side. We wanted a fast way to start new web application and start writing on your app instead of spending time on setup.

Elixir have always had good tooling and framework from the start.

Being blunt, if you're new to Beam, I'd probably choose Elixir and Phoenix. But Elixir isn't for everyone, and if you prefer Erlang's syntax or are interested in contributing to some of the projects written specifically in Erlang, then that's what you should pick.

Both are great, but I think Elixir is more beginner-friendly. Through the course of learning one though, you'll inevitably see some of the other, which is pretty cool. :)

Presumably because you like Erlang.
Not a great front page for a framework:

- Website is plain HTTP, HTTPS doesn't seem to be supported. (or is just taking a while to load?)

- Middle mouse / trackpad scrolling is slowed due to the background animation.

- Reloading the page for some reason loads me 1/3 down the page?

- Button CSS (top right) is misaligned and jumps all over when hovering over.

- Large white boxes with minimal padding makes everything look empty.

- High CPU usage doing nothing (400% usage, I assume again due to the background animation)

- It tries to load assets that don't exist. (stars.svg)

- No on-page examples, probably not that important though.

It's possible this framework is still great but I don't think it will gain any traction if the first introduction to it is this poor.

> Reloading the page for some reason loads me 1/3 down the page?

For some reason (probably related to the animation?) the page starts with a huge margin at the bottom which then slowly gets smaller and smaller.

RE: No HTTPS

Reminds me of the Elixir installer for Windows.

https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir-windows-setup/blob/a63...

No lag for me in scrolling <shrug>
One consulting company website is just a logo, another doesn't exist.
Website looks good on iOS. Didn’t notice the background.

I like the GitHub samples/demo repos.

Very cool, will consider this for the next api project. Heard only good things about erlang/elixir ecosystem and keen to dive in.

As mentioned before, if you have any questions and so please reach out and we try to help as much as possible.
This might be great but the moving stars in the background meant I had to close the tab before I could find out.

I'm sure the developers just thought it was pretty but _argh_.

(note that I am judging myself for posting a comment complaining about a site design rather than anything meaningful but my visual processing is still screwed up several minutes later and I dearly hope somebody who reads this will avoid making the same mistake later as a result because -ow-)

I'm astonished that a few moving dots could impair anyones vision.

I take it you totally avoid video games and film/tv? Because they are much more intense.

Just to be clear, "visual processing" being screwed up doesn't have to mean a vision impairment; The combination of dark background with bright moving dots can make certain people motion sick, especially when combined with static objects in the foreground that you need to focus on. The fun part is that these types of processing quirks usually do stick around for a bit and fade over time.

I guess I'd kind of compare sensitizing stimulus and subsequent removal to saturation in a solution where metered dilution was the only way to bring the saturation down to normal.

Speaking as somebody who likes to stand out on deck on a boat in a storm, I was extremely surprised to discover that the design triggered what I think should probably be described as a bug in my wetware.

No nausea or anything, just visceral discomfort that left me having trouble focusing my eyes right for several minutes.

I think on the whole I'm more annoyed at my brain than anything else, that was a -weird- experience.

That sounds unpleasant :( brains are weird!
every single post on hacker news has at least one comment that completely ignores website content and critiques css / web framework. it’s just a given.
Yes, but I'm still not at all happy that this time it was me.

Bloody malfunctioning wetware.

A good use for the prefers-reduced-motion media query in CSS.
Yes, I agree the page is less then good. We hope to get a new version out soon.

Great to see all feedback and we will update the page.

I wish you the best of luck and hopefully at a later date will be able to have a constructive technical opinion rather than whining because something in my brain was apparently incompatible with your pretty :D
I thought the same thing, it made me feel a tiny bit dizzy.
I still feel like kind of an ass but my guess there'd be other people out there with the same wetware bug as me meant it seemed worth posting anyway while also judging myself for being That Guy ;)
It could work if it was only on scroll,