Scenic - A Functional UI Framework

Might be what @boydm is working on as ongoing effort after: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77FW-jrCyCs

It’s likely a maturation from https://youtu.be/77FW-jrCyCs?list=PLqj39LCvnOWZMVugtyKlHMF1o2zPNntFL from last year.

Ah! that makes a lot of sense. I was in that talk last year. It is exciting stuff!

Yes indeed! I will be talking about Scenic, which is what I was talking about at the last Elixir Conf (hadn’t named it yet).

I’ve been coding like crazy on this for the past year and it is really starting to take shape. Everything works great on a Mac, I’m finishing up the Raspberry via Nerves now and then a bunch of cleanup work over the summer. Should be up on Mac, Linux, Window, Raspberry 3/0 and more by the time the conferences comes around.

If anyone has questions about it in the mean time, feel free to reach out. I’ve been hesitant to give access until I feel confident the apis have stopped fluctuating wildly. I think I’m there. So it will be out in the wild soonish.

Whew. I’m looking forward to talking opening about it instead of just being heads down coding.

@boydm Scenic does sound very exciting, but as someone who’s been following (and sometimes contributing to) FOSS projects for more than 20 years, your “heads down coding” approach raises a red flag.

If you are unable to work in the open now, how can the community know whether you’ll be open to contributions later? Even if you are open to contributions, every day your code base evolves under wraps, the barrier to contributors becomes higher.

If that’s going on for more than a year, it’s a huge red flag. Please take this as constructive criticism. I’d love to see you succeed in launching and leading a sustainable, Open Source project.

It just occurred to me: maybe it’s not intended to be Open Source?

Huge red flag? Nonsense. Elixir itself took a long time to see the light of day. Plenty of projects do.

Discourse (the open source software that powers this forum) was in development behind closed doors for a year before it made it’s debut too - now it’s one of the best forum platforms out there.

I’m sure @boydm has a vision and perhaps he doesn’t want that diluted or complicated just yet. I am the same - if I have a vision for something I prefer to see it through, if it begins to get diluted or feels like a struggle (perhaps because others continually need convincing) I begin to lose heart.

When you lose heart, the passion starts to fade and things don’t turn out to be their best (imo). This is why I always encourage people to do what they feel is right and what their heart is in most - even if that’s their particular way of going about things.

I’m sure Scenic is going to be awesome

Hey guys, totally get the debate. Asked myself the same question.

Some projects lend themselves to open from the start. Some don’t. In this case, I knew roughly what I wanted, but also knew that it would change significantly from the original designs as it progressed. (that definitely happened). The last thing I want is accreting inertia by having people write code on top of APIs that I need to feel free to change. Once an API is released to the wild it takes on a certain weight. There is an implied obligation to not jerk it around all the time.

So, I think it depends on the nature of the project. This one needed to incubate closed for a while. Or rather, with a close circle of other developers having access and giving feedback on it.

Came here to say the same thing. There is such a thing as launching too early because the second you launch anything, you immediately begin fielding questions, criticism, support, etc. All of that slows down your development efforts, especially if it becomes your job to communicate your vision to everybody while you build it.

Much, much easier to get it to the point that you are comfortable before releasing it. Every rough edge you polish first is a question you don’t have to answer.

Can’t wait to see it.

So excited to see this library in action, keep the good work up!