HN Explorer

Ask HN: Why are there no popular web frameworks merging front- and backend?

1 points by julvo ↗ HN
Dear HN community, I am wondering why I couldn't find any web frameworks which abstract the network boundary between frontend and backend. Developing in this kind of framework would feel like developing one single app, with a single entry point and a global namespace including both frontend and backend.

Are you aware of anything like that and I just missed it? Or is such framework just an unrealistic idea?

7 comments

[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 21.7 ms ] thread
Svenskunganka
From the top of my head, Meteor[0] is such a framework. Last time I used it (years ago), it was quite the vendor lock-in. Only supported MongoDB, and almost every library you wanted to integrate had to be wrapped in some way and it didn't scale well at all, felt extremely heavy. A simple Todo app and you had more than a MB of client-side JS that needed to be loaded. It has probably improved since then though.

[0]: https://www.meteor.com/

julvo
Thank you, meteor is probably the closest to what I'm looking for I came across so far.
dothis
I don't see a reason to to that. To me that sounds like making a printing press of paper. Or a newspaper of steel.
julvo
To speak in this metaphor: I am looking for a framework which allows me to specify only the final newspaper. A suitable printing press and the paper should be generated by the framework.
elviejo
http://opalang.org

Write simultaneously the frontend and backend code, in the same language, within the same module. Even better: the Opa Slicer automates the calls between client and server.