Harp
Dev tools
static web server
SHOW HN2013
233points
75comments
#55of 1,739 in 2013
Top 4%of 2013 by points
How HN took it
CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments
6 positive, 18 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 11 critical, out of 35 comments about the project. Thread score -0.14.
Idea: 4 for, 4 againstDocs: 2 for, 2 againstPerformance: 0 for, 3 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 1 againstExecution: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Good balance between static files and full web app stacks
From 1 comment
Nginx is 11 years old and faced similar skepticism from many people in 2002 who made statements about how feature-packed, stable and popular Apache was. I've been using Harp for…
crabasa on HN
Useful for prototyping and auto-compiling assets on refresh
From 2 comments
Reminds me of Middleman (http://middlemanapp.com/) and of my own https://github.com/stdbrouw/draughtsman, which has sadly languished. I've found it indispensable for prototyping,…
stdbrouw on HNSo this is like Apache's mod_* but for modern things. Sounds neat. One of the things I like most about the Play Framework is that it autocompiles LESS, CoffeeScript and Scala on…
ecopoesis on HN
Objections
Node.js is slower than Nginx for serving static files
From 3 comments
The idea is cool but I would never serve my static sites with NodeJS. Don't ask why. Benchmark it.
oakaz on HNI benchmarked static servers in NodeJS, using couple of different libraries such as "st" etc. They're 7 times slower than a static site server that I wrote in Go. Forget…
oakaz on HNI don't think letting node.js handling static files is the very best idea.
TheHippo on HN
Mixing server and build step is poor separation of concerns
From 2 comments
"Build on request" is a good idea. We do something similar in our stack: tup[0] as the (insanely fast) build system, and developer VMs run mitmproxy[1] on port 8080 which runs…
chrismonsanto on HNThis doesn't seem to be on the right level of abstraction - why replacing the entire web server, adding dynamic translating (compilation) as a main feature?
tsenkov on HN
Unclear what problem it solves over Nginx or Grunt
From 2 comments
I like the idea, but I don't understand the problem they're trying to solve. For example I have an app using node as the backend behind nginx and ember as the front end. Right…
edude03 on HNThis doesn't seem to be on the right level of abstraction - why replacing the entire web server, adding dynamic translating (compilation) as a main feature?
tsenkov on HN
Requests
Livereload support
From 2 comments
Does Harp have livereload support? Kill all the refresh buttons (for dev)! That would be my only must have for using a different dev server than grunt based for JS app dev
rschmitty on HNLive reload is in the roadmap, stay tuned!
jorgepedret on HN
Plugin support
From 1 comment
Will Harp support adding plugins? For now, I use Wintersmith. It supports Jade and Markdown out of the box, and you can extend it by writing plugins. I wrote one to help me…
salehenrahman on HN
Haml support
From 1 comment
This looks like it would be useful for a simple AngularJS app of mine where we use LESS, CoffeeScript, and Haml. We had written a simple Rack server to compile assets on demand.…
cheshire137 on HN
Benchmarks
From 2 comments
Any benchmarks available?
goshx on HNNodeJS is plenty fast enough. When the dust settles we will provide benchmarks alongside NGINX. We're not pulling the wool over anyones eyes, I don't expect Harp to reach NGINX…
sintaxi on HN
Questions
How does it compare to DocPad or Middleman
From 3 comments
I am using docpad (http://docpad.org/) and I want to try mimosa (http://mimosa.io/). Does Harp compete with this frameworks? I would appreciate any comments on this because I…
pyotrgalois on HNThis seems like a less mature and more opinionated edition of DocPad? - http://docpad.org I find it hard to understand why one would use this over DocPad... Can someone fill me…
balupton on HNReminds me of Middleman (http://middlemanapp.com/) and of my own https://github.com/stdbrouw/draughtsman, which has sadly languished. I've found it indispensable for prototyping,…
stdbrouw on HN
Can it run behind Nginx as a proxy
From 1 comment
It doesn't need to replace the web server. You can let Nginx be the main web server and use the proxy module to send traffic to Harp.
lobster_johnson on HN
Alternatives named
Middleman
From 1 comment
Reminds me of Middleman (http://middlemanapp.com/) and of my own https://github.com/stdbrouw/draughtsman, which has sadly languished. I've found it indispensable for prototyping,…
stdbrouw on HN
DocPad
From 1 comment
This seems like a less mature and more opinionated edition of DocPad? - http://docpad.org I find it hard to understand why one would use this over DocPad... Can someone fill me…
balupton on HN
Grunt
From 1 comment
I like the idea, but I don't understand the problem they're trying to solve. For example I have an app using node as the backend behind nginx and ember as the front end. Right…
edude03 on HN
Wintersmith
From 1 comment
Will Harp support adding plugins? For now, I use Wintersmith. It supports Jade and Markdown out of the box, and you can extend it by writing plugins. I wrote one to help me…
salehenrahman on HN