Lynx: Open Source Native Cross Platform framework used in TikTok

Are we intentionally reusing project names now? Lynx [1] is a fairly popular tui browser. I guess it doesn’t support ssl or tls, so is now obsolete? W3M [2] is a decent tui alternative that does. Or if you use kitty, awrit [3] is nice, with images and mouse support (it renders chromium in a terminal window)<p>[1]<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Lynx_(web_browser)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Lynx_(web_browser)</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;w3m.sourceforge.net&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;w3m.sourceforge.net&#x2F;</a><p>[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;chase&#x2F;awrit">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;chase&#x2F;awrit</a>

I remember listening to a Syntax FM[0] with Zack Jackson from ByteDance, which mentioned this framework briefly. Some quotes and notes from that part of the podcast:<p>- All ByteDance products, even native apps, are web-based<p>- They have an in-house framework called &quot;Lynx&quot; which is essentially their version of React Native[1]<p>- &quot;All apps are Lynx apps. Everything is a Lynx app. It&#x27;s all backed off the same stack.&quot;<p>- This approach allows them to maintain a unified architecture while having specialized teams focus on different aspects (algorithms, compiler, kernel, etc.)<p>[0]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;syntax.fm&#x2F;show&#x2F;860&#x2F;module-federation-microfrontends-with-bytedance-s-zack-jackson" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;syntax.fm&#x2F;show&#x2F;860&#x2F;module-federation-microfrontends-...</a><p>[1]: The one being released, in the podcast they confirmed they would be open-sourcing it this year

Apple and Google need to talk. They need to collaborate on something truly native to put an end to these bloated frameworks. My goodness the amount of engineering work being put into terrible mobile experiences is worse than how much Nasa is spending to look for water in space.<p>Any mobile app designers out there think TikTok has good UX? I mean scrolling video is great, but everything else?

TikTok is impressively multi-device. It works well on Android, iPhone, Android TV, and web.<p>Compared to Instagram, where the web version has always been behind the mobile version, TikTok really seems to make each device version the best possible.

Got curious enough to wanting to give it a go, so on the quickstart page it says:<p>&gt; Lynx Explorer is a sandbox for trying out Lynx quickly.<p>And then it asks me to use either the iOS Simulator or the Android Simulator, which based on experience, neither are made for anything resembling &quot;quickly&quot;.<p>Anyone know if there are any &quot;pure-web&quot; instructions around? Skimmed around the docs, website and repository but didn&#x27;t find anything that looked like it was made for just web setup.

I recently looked closely at cross platform mobile mobile development.<p>Despite distrusting Google and despite knowing react I chose flutter.<p>I want something fast with close to total cross platform compatibility.<p>Net Maui is not well spoken of. React native seems slow.<p>The only real choice fir my needs is flutter.<p>Let’s see how long it holds up.

I see there&#x27;s Lynx for Web[0]. Does that also adhere to the two-threads model (one for UI, one for background)? Also, is this something that React&#x2F;Native may adopt itself one day? Curious to know if this is a technique that may be adopted by the React ecoystem itself, or if it&#x27;s just too far outside the bounds of what React is supposed to handle.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;lynx-family&#x2F;lynx-stack&#x2F;tree&#x2F;main&#x2F;packages&#x2F;web-platform">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;lynx-family&#x2F;lynx-stack&#x2F;tree&#x2F;main&#x2F;packages...</a>

Seems interesting. Coming from the react native world, competition is good! This seems to have a from scratch layout engine, which is pretty exciting. It looks like it supports some of the more recent&#x2F;advanced CSS features. It also has a javascript engine based on QuickJS.<p>I can&#x27;t wait for a more technical deep dive into how this works and compares to react native.

I see very little <i>native</i> on that.

Native now means mobile only? That’s a depressing state of affairs. Cross platform and then not even mentioning you’re limited to 2 out of the 5 more popular OSs. Just say you rewrote React Native if that’s all.

&gt; However, Lynx isn&#x27;t limited to React<p>I think this could be huge! I&#x27;d love to see a SolidJS version

Quickly tested it out, and gotta say that I enjoy being able to write just normal CSS to style things. The getting started process is really speedy.

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;lynxjs.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;lynxjs.org&#x2F;</a> doesn&#x27;t scroll smoothly.

Interesting if Lynx uses host OS widgets like RN does or renders stuff itself like Flutter.

Support for CSS transitions (and animations) on a native UI thread would be huge. React Native Renanimated is cumbersome and painful to use everywhere.<p>Sadly I finally ditched my MacBook for a Linux PC since Expo&#x2F;EAS has liberated me from needing Xcode. I won’t be able to try this out for iOS development.

So it is basically a rebranded React Native? Or completely different?<p>Or could someone ELI5 &#x2F; TL;DR? The whole blog post is basically saying how good Lynx is and what problem it solves without telling me much technical details.

No. No, it isn&#x27;t. Lynx is a browser I use in the terminal. This is something else.

Not to be confused with <i>Lynx Browser: The Land That Time Revived</i> <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=43119238">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=43119238</a>

Would be interested in using this if not for the lack of LLM support.<p>Can you also explain what the advantages are over React Native?