Products · Product
Elm
Raised as a usability problem by 34 people on Hacker News over 10 years (2014–2023), in 27 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Error messages are hard for newcomers to parseUnreviewed
20142026- Error messages are often unrelated to the actual problem, misleading the developer2019-10-21
- Strict indentation and style parse errors force back-and-forth fixes and hide other errors2019-06-06
- Error messages are arcane and confusing for newcomers to parse2016-06-06
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 36 complaints
- Date formatting via asynchronous ports causes flash of unformatted dates and extra render cycles2023-02-11
- Elm's counter example has unintuitive lines that double-take even experienced developers2023-02-11
- Tooling is so annoying to set up that users want to go back to pip and virtualenvs2023-02-11
- Working with external JavaScript via Elm ports is very frustrating and hits limitations2023-02-10
- Steep learning curve and hard to find resources with real Elm experience2022-01-22
- Ports are unusable for small synchronous APIs like Intl2022-01-22
- Calling JavaScript from Elm takes many hoops and annoying boilerplate for small synchronous calls2021-07-14
- Routing messages between subpages is very painful to write and maintain2020-02-05
- Ports make wiring multiple editor instances and JS library calls complex and error-prone2020-02-05
- Application structure is confusing; not quite MVC and can't keep code in one file2020-02-05
- The --debug flag was broken for about a year, so debugging didn't work.2019-10-21
- Error messages are often unrelated to the actual problem, misleading the developer2019-10-21
- Strict indentation and style parse errors force back-and-forth fixes and hide other errors2019-06-06
- Virtual DOM diffing slows as thousands of chat nodes grow, exceeding frame time2019-03-04
- Writing Elm apps is painful; using JavaScript libraries requires writing ports and JS expertise2019-01-10
- Browser code hangs forever with no error, forcing the user to reload2018-08-25
- Simple things need many hacks and extra code, disrupting developer flow2017-08-02
- Couldn't figure out how to change the clock hand speed2017-05-09
- Chaining Maybes together is hard to figure out when convoluted2017-04-12
- Syntax docs lack needed details and package docstrings don't explain arguments, making it hard to find information2017-02-11
- Code is hard to read and not intuitive, with no clear reason for its style2016-11-23
- Non-2xx responses always become errors, and error bodies are strings rather than JSON2016-11-14
- Hard to grasp concepts and overwhelming to start even small projects2016-10-03
- Hard to find help when stuck on confusing code2016-07-11
- Error messages for numeric literals are confusing compared to string literals with the same mistake2016-06-07
- Local setup fails with a confusing missing-module error while the online editor works2016-06-07
- Error messages are arcane and confusing for newcomers to parse2016-06-06
- Ports are unintuitive for the developer to use2016-04-04
- FFI via ports is painful: needs new port, JS listener, and wiring2016-01-04
- Requires lots of boilerplate, threading state and case matches everywhere, so much extra typing2015-12-13
- Long verbose error text makes finding the real problem effortful when used constantly2015-06-30
- Long conversational error text is hard to skim and wastes screen space2015-06-30
- Server communication APIs are underdeveloped, making backend interaction a major headache2015-02-17
- Elm demos are basically unusable in Firefox, apparently slow2014-12-10
- Basic editor forces copying code between Emacs and browser for debugging2014-09-24
- Example sites and blog layout break badly when the browser window is resized2014-07-04