Rɐbbit Dynamic Datascapes | Hacker News Reader

Rɐbbit Dynamic Datascapes

github.com

69 pointsnotarobot12316 comments

This is really opaque to understand, but it has that feeling of a REALLY cool personal project.

My best guess is this is a dashboard platform and builder, that uses clojure under the hood for the content shown in each one of these cards. The UI writes clojure as you configure it, so it's all scaffolding, and you can set up most of the dashboard using the GUI, and go into each card and tweak the data sourcing/parsing/presentation as you see fit.

It's neat! I don't have a use for it honestly, but it's 100% something I can tell the author is hyped about which is good! :)

Thanks! Pretty much. The idea is to kind of make easy things easy - but allow a very high ceiling for hacking and modifying them for your use case. Besides, if we generate code for some easy stuff and a low skill user starts to make that mental model between the generated code and the visual output - but scrubbing values or even tweaking a CSS map - I think it fosters learning so much more than opaque and hidden wizards and "magic" code being run.

There is also a whole (user space configed) viz reco system (algo chosen and built templates based on query metadata and specified attribs) - but it's all just a starting point. Low bar, high ceiling? At least that's the idea.

There are lots of other systems focused on reading/writing values from the dash (both headless server processes and active browser actions - all synced with the server). Clojure REPL constructing data shapes to be rendered on the front-end also gives me HTMX vibes, which is kind of cool.

There is also a complete visual flow builder system, that you could use to write ETL... or run "visual functions" triggered by UI actions, etc etc.

Anything that serves moving data back & forth, reaction chains, and making it look beautiful (if you want).

Heya. Very cool to see this here. Still in alpha and a lot to work on, but I think it's truly a unique offering in this (mostly crowded and nondescript) space.

Not to shill too hard, but my X timeline is loaded with little videos and gifs showing different features and demos (some quite esoteric, like joining a Clojure REPL output vector to a SQL table and filtering on it all). @ryrobes

Currently working on docs and much better "WTF IS THIS" messaging.

For anyone who is confused due to the infodump on the GH page, here is a video where I step by step go through some of the SQL and Viz generation features - it's a bit long and doesn't even touch the deep complex stuff (reactive values engine and values i/o) much, but I feel that it's a pretty good intro for what I'm going for...

So, in terms of the RVBBIT (just say rabbit) iceberg - this is everything "above the waterline" - for this layer, direct comparison would be something like superset - but done in a very different way. Please hit me up here with more questions, ideas, etc!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxYTSI7aenI

Awesome.

Like stepping inside a modular synth from 2040, except for data instead of music

I really have no idea what I'm looking at...

It's not terribly obvious while skimming the page but there are some videos linked via a few of those images ("Basic SQL ▶" etc.) and the author has also uploaded loads of narrated demos over the recent past, prior to releasing the project: https://x.com/ryrobes

If I were to attempt a summary myself... RVBBIT is a SQL-powered relational programming canvas with a visual Clojure REPL and full-stack UI framework.

Project guy here - yes, succinct messaging is an issue I'm working on - there is literally so much there. I've been trying to frame it like an Iceberg - on the above the water level its a nice drag and drop "data canvas" that supports SQL and Clojure nREPL connections (meaning it could be any REPL) that generates code to be tweaked and modded for what you need it for (with some very customizable composition).

But underneath the water line it's almost like a pub/sub reactive value engine - since everything is essentially a named parameter that can be subbed to by the client (by referencing it) and the client will push updates to any subbed clients. So, run a flow - each step in the flow is it's own subbable value - run a solver (arbitrary function) - its a sub value - signals (boolean triggers) also a sub... not to mention other client's UI values... also a subbable value.

It's a deep rabbit hole (pun intended?) of reactive / cascading effects - which is a great fertile ground for interactive dash creation. IMHO data tools want to be feedback loop factories.

The dude quit his job to work on it!

This "problem" had been bugging me for a decade. The schism between "Proprietary BI Tools" (quick and inflexible) and just writing things from scratch (slow and wide open). You customers don't know or care what your tools can and can't do - and god forbid your org spent millions on Tableau (or whatever) already - your bed is basically made...

Why can't we have a bit of both - and put some direct-manipulation, Bret Victor-y Twists on it?

I just want to build "nice things" for my users that answer their questions, have some re-usability, lots of interactivity, and be able to check it into source control...

Ended up in this beautiful mutation of Tableau meets Hypercard meets Powerbuilder, etc (I think there is even a little SmallTalk and Lotus Notes in there). It's funny how the ultimate evolution of a dash tool is essentially an internal app builder...

Anyways - so I jumped off the ledge and dedicated an entire year to this - alpha is a bit rough around the edges, but it's def something interesting...

Don't let your dreams be memes - or something like that. :)

Hey man I'm not judging you if you can make money doing this!

Didn't take it that way at all. All good. :)

I am curious about this project, but I am psyched by the quotes in this project

Hell yeah, I really dig this.

I love the commitment to the aesthetic, I love the reframing of it as “should feel more like a game engine than an app”. As someone who has also been through the dashboard-web-app-spectrum-of-pain, this looks like something I’ll be following with a close eye.

Thanks. It's funny about the chosen aesthetic - I had early builds and demos that were very "corpo sterile" and eventually I started going crazy with dynamic themes and openai generated backgrounds, just to keep my motivation up. Morphed into a cyberpunk-esque kind of vibe.

I had people tell me that it wasn't a good idea - will turn people off, etc - my thought was... "well, if people see you can do crazy stuff, then certainly a plain-jame white, black, and heather grey theme would be childs play, no?"

Eventually, I just decided to lean into it. As the kids say, "vibes".

I dig it! I always appreciate when software engineers put a little more creativity into their work, especially in UI. Modern UI design can be so hideously bland and samey.

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