Hey Elixir community!

First, I owe you all an apology. There's a running joke among my friends that Hologram is like nuclear fusion or fully autonomous Tesla cars - always "coming very soon™" . While I've been telling many of you earlier dates, life had other plans.

I want to be transparent with you - the past two years have been incredibly challenging for me health-wise. I went through three surgeries, and from January to July, I was bedridden and unable to walk. It completely turned my life and work upside down. But I'm back now, stronger than ever, and ready to finally share Hologram with you!

What's Hologram?

Hologram is an isomorphic web framework that runs as your frontend layer in Elixir projects. While it requires Phoenix to run, you can use it with other backend solutions like Ash (HASH stack, anyone?). What makes it special? I’ve rebuilt it from the ground up with the ambitious goal of supporting 100% of Elixir syntax eventually.

Current Requirements

- Elixir 1.13.4 - 1.17.3

- OTP 22.3 - 27.1

(Other versions might work too, but they haven't been tested yet)

Let's Talk About the Current State

I want to be upfront about some current limitations and quirks:

1. While we don't have 100% Elixir syntax coverage yet, what's implemented lets you fully experience Hologram's programming model.

2. Live reloading is a bit moody right now - if you run into issues, try restarting the server or deleting the _build directory.

3. Bundle sizes are currently larger than they'll eventually be. The transpiled code is intentionally verbose for easier debugging.

4. Compilation is taking its time because everything recompiles on any change. We had incremental compilation before, but I temporarily removed it for better debugging.

5. Rendering is currently slower than planned due to full page rerenders on component state changes and a temporary bitstring implementation (yes, we're using integer arrays for bits right now).

What's Next?

I'm working on Hologram full-time for the next couple of months, focusing on:

- Addressing all the limitations mentioned above

- Implementing cookies and session support

- Porting the remaining Erlang functions to JS

- Adding tons of optimizations

I believe we'll be production-ready in a few months. I've spent the past months sharpening the saw, and now I'm all in!

How Can You Help?

The best help right now would be:

- Play with Hologram and report any bugs you find

- Share your feedback and experiences

- Stay tuned for coding tasks if you'd like to contribute directly

Got questions? Create a topic in our Hologram Forum: https://elixirforum.com/c/elixir-framework-forums/hologram-f... - I'm there daily, and your questions will help shape the documentation!

New Website!

Check out the new Hologram website: https://hologram.page/ (Desktop users, you might want to disable f.lux or similar tools for an hour to get the full experience)

Special Thanks

A massive thank you to everyone who reached out, showed interest, and cheered me on during this journey. And the most special thanks goes to Emilia - without you, I don't know how I would have made it through those bedridden months. You're amazing!

Spread the Word!

If you're excited about Hologram, please share this announcement with your network! Let's get more eyes on this project and build something amazing together.

Let's make web development in Elixir even more awesome!

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P.S. Remember, this is just the beginning. The current quirks will be resolved soon, and I can't wait to see what you'll build with Hologram!

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GitHub repo: https://github.com/bartblast/hologram

Website: https://hologram.page/