Creating a new backend (Wasm)

michaelkrog

Hi there.

First, let me say that what you've done are is just amazing. I have been trying do find ways to a declarative UI Framework at this level, and then finally finding your project is just awesome. It has just the right level of abstraction.

Which leads me to some questions. :)

My idea is to create a new backend for the browser for apps compiled to Wasm using Swiftwasm. By using JavacriptKit I imagine a backend that renders via HTML elements.

I am an experienced developer, but Swift is new to me. I am ready to get started though. :)

But:

Do you see any obvious obstacles in creating a Wasm backend?
Do you know of anything in Aparoksha that would hinder it to work with Swift embedded mode? (Apple shared some quite promising Wasm examples that shows binary sizes can become very small)

david-swift

Hello!

Your idea sounds amazing! This is a perfect use case for the Meta package! I'm personally very interested in such a project.

michaelkrog Do you see any obvious obstacles in creating a Wasm backend?

No :)

michaelkrog Do you know of anything in Aparoksha that would hinder it to work with Swift embedded mode?

I tried building the Meta package with SwiftWasm and it works! Therefore, creating a declarative SwiftUI-like UI framework for web apps should be possible 🎉! In case we would want to add this as a backend to the cross-platform framework Aparoksha (which is in a very early state right now, but I'd be interested in this), this should also work (I have not tested it though).

I love this idea! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or need help!

michaelkrog

Thanks.... :)

My initial thoughts is to have a basic Adwaita based design system for the web in place using standardized web components.

I have forked Shoelace.style for that purpose here and called it Adwebta:
https://github.com/michaelkrog/adwebta

My plan is to take ideas from https://github.com/romgrk/web-toolkit which are react components implementing Adwaita design and build web components in Adwebta from that.

Next step would be to build adwebta-swift, which would be a library similar to adwaita-swift but for the web. It will utilize JavascriptKit to create Adwebta components, when compiled as a Wasm and run in the browser.

david-swift

That's amazing! adwebta-swift would be a wonderful addition to Aparoksha!

michaelkrog

Just an update after some further investigation.

Libadwaita‘s stylesheets cannot be reused for web as I initially hoped to be able to. Also, libadwaita does not have a full solid design system that can be used for rebuilding adwaita design using diverse styling mechanisms (styles tokens defining space system fx). That makes it a bit difficult to recreate libadwaita for web and keep it up-to-date.

I will instead create a swift wrapper for the design system and components we use for https://previsto.com. It does have another look and feel though, but so does swiftui and winui.