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Text.js: Build full-stack React apps that render inside console.log(textjs.org)
89 points by nateb2022 4 days ago | 49 comments
[–] hmokiguess 12 hours ago
I am trying to think of use cases for this but I can’t think of one. It’s sort of cool, but I need help figuring out who’s the audience for this here. Why would someone need or want this?
[–] adamdotdev 8 hours ago
Hey, author here! It’s just for fun :). I think I went too hard on the satire and people thought it was something other than a good time, but it’s just a good time.
[–] thayne 8 hours ago
There will always be people who miss the satire
[–] peesem 7 hours ago
the line between satire and slop grows ever thinner in the age of LLMs
[–] antonvs 4 hours ago
Too late, I've already vibecoded a startup that uses this. It's basically Uber for furries. Valuation is $2bn.
[–] hnlmorg 11 hours ago
I’d wager it’s just a bit of fun. Which is amongst the best reasons to do anything.
[–] hmokiguess 10 hours ago
Oh that part I understood haha which is why I liked it. Was thinking beyond that though, curious if there’s more to it.
[–] brap 11 hours ago
I think the main value is buried in the page, and that is it can also render in the terminal, so it’s sort of React for TUI apps? And they built OpenCode with it?

But then why make console.log your main selling point?

[–] moritzwarhier 10 hours ago
Because console.log is not much different from stdout in JS/Node, I'd guess.
[–] aatd86 5 hours ago
Used to think of building something like this for my frontend framework as a way to display help files. Didn't get to it though and nowadays, the point is moot with AI producing most of the code. Less of a need for framework -help.
[–] BorisMelnik 12 hours ago
those are my favorite apps
[–] sixtram 11 hours ago
I'm not impressed until I see Doom ported to console.log rendered thru libghostty-vt.
[–] adamdotdev 8 hours ago
https://textjs.org/doom

Way ahead of you boss!

[–] yipinwong 6 hours ago
I was wondering where the sound was coming from, and forgot to open the devtools :)
[–] ctippett 9 hours ago
Developed by anomalyco[1], the same crew behind OpenCode. Not sure how much of the marketing site is satire, but it looks fun.

[1] https://github.com/anomalyco

[–] adamdotdev 8 hours ago
The marketing site is entirely satire :). But the framework works and there’s lots of resources to guide you along if you want to render an app in the console.
[–] cluckindan 12 hours ago
Now build a browser in it
[–] adamdotdev 8 hours ago
Someone did! With webcontainers or something, but I can’t find the tweet now
[–] aogaili 11 hours ago
Hahaha
[–] grimgrin 9 hours ago
I see this as a novel capability with no reason to think “why?”

It’s a capability, use your imagination.

Cheers, neat idea

[–] mulhoon 11 hours ago
Amazing! But why? Definitely a fun idea.
[–] baron816 10 hours ago
> But why?

Autism is a hell of a drug

[–] adamdotdev 8 hours ago
I made this, and I am autistic, confirmed!
[–] slj 3 hours ago
Trillions of us
[–] devilsdata 10 hours ago
I opened the console to see if it there was a demo, but alas there wasn't.
[–] adamdotdev 7 hours ago
Wait for real? Should be lots of them!
[–] devilsdata 5 hours ago
I'm on Safari and didn't see one. Possibly something wrong with my setup
[–] bgitarts 5 hours ago
Use case is to build neat messaging for developers that open the console on your site
[–] rekttrader 8 hours ago
Claude code uses a similar design principle, nice to see what they’re doing inspired an open build. These opencode folks are slick.
[–] andsoitis 12 hours ago
This is cool. Can it also be used out of the box to build regular terminal apps?
[–] CMLewis 8 hours ago
Im guessing so, given any stdout is ≈ console.log
[–] talon8635 6 hours ago
A hammer in search of a nail. Why must everything be overcomplicated?
[–] redanddead 10 hours ago
Everyone asking about use cases fuck off already. It’s fun, that’s reason enough
[–] apsurd 10 hours ago
Building things just for fun in these AI days just hits different now. wish it wasn't so but it is.
[–] redanddead 9 hours ago
its like the amount of value left to be added is shrinking so people are obsessing and there’s severe jealousy

It’s very strange

Over time the available value that could be added should be increasing

[–] bobthepanda 8 hours ago
is it, or are we experiencing what the Chinese are referring to as involution?

> https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/what-i...

> The Chinese term for involution, "neijuan", began trending online in 2020 and was initially used by young people to describe the hypercompetitive and often self-defeating pursuit of traditional markers of success. Some of the contexts they used it in included questioning what was the point of working hard to get into a good school if the reward was working 996 hours (9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days per week) in a tech company? If you were lucky enough to land a job, that is, in an era of high graduate unemployment.

> Though the term is far less commonly used in English, involution comes from a latin term which means "to roll or turn inwards". It was popularised by American cultural anthropologist Clifford Geertz in the 1960s - in relation to his studies of Javanese agriculture - to describe economic or cultural stagnation despite increasing complexity or effort.

> More recently, neijuan has become shorthand in China for the exhausting but also often futile and sometimes self-destructive grind of hyper-competition more broadly.The concept is now also linked to the country’s pivot from property-driven growth to an industrial complex encompassing a third of global manufacturing, which has seen more recources invested without any accompanying increase in returns. It's a race to the bottom.

[–] redanddead 8 hours ago
Have we ever solved this in history? Or do we just die and forget and repeat ad infinitum

The same thing will happen in space

[–] krapp 10 hours ago
I mean - it has a landing page advertising its features. It has an enterprise tier and a "sales team". It has a merch store. It's clearly not meant to be seen as "just for fun."
[–] ctippett 9 hours ago
The enterprise sales page is so generic I wouldn't be surprised if it was just thrown in by whatever LLM created the marketing site.

Or maybe I'm just naive about big enterprise's appetite for a library that guarantees 99.99% console uptime.

[–] redanddead 9 hours ago
So what if it was
[–] rvz 12 hours ago
Useless but ok.
[–] tamimio 11 hours ago
usecase?
[–] AirMax98 11 hours ago
Job application form would be fun! Lots of companies put little hiring ads for web devs in their console.
[–] rvz 10 hours ago
Why do that when not only an AI agent will find it easily, but AI agents have clearly replaced these web developers?
[–] contrahax 11 hours ago
It looks like the authors also created opencode, and there’s a page about how opencode uses it - so local TUI for agents seems like a primary use case.