Is there any way to embed JSX like DSL or equivalent in Gleam?

[mistyharsh]

Since Gleam now compiles to JavaScript, I would like to write bindings for Preact/React and use some syntactic sugar not necessarily same but like JSX/TSX to write HTML templates. Is there any way to do this in Gleam?

Also, can you please share what things do not work well and/or not supported when compiling the code to JavaScript?

[lpil]

Hello!

There's no XML literal syntax in Gleam, you'd have to use a function based API. One such example can be found here: https://github.com/JohnDoneth/gleam-vdom

Also, can you please share what things do not work well and/or not supported when compiling the code to JavaScript?

What do you mean?

[lpil]

Thank you, very kind. If you write any Gleam please do share it on GitHub and send me a link. Even if it's not finished it's great to see what people are doing, and it will help us get syntax highlighting on GitHub too once we have enough Gleam repos.

[andresgutgon]

Hi @lpil I'm coming from React. So far gleam and Lustre mental model are fantastic in terms of DX. My only grip is the view layer. Jsx-like would help a lot to frontend folks like me in terms of adoption imo

Have you seen?
https://github.com/choltreppe/gleamx/tree/main

Do you think this could be push by the core team?

[lpil]

We do not support any forks of the language, no. Ideally that language would remove the word "gleam" from the name to prevent people thinking it is Gleam instead of a new Gleam-inspired programming language.

[andresgutgon]

I respect that, but naming is not what matters to me 😆. Also, that package is not a fork. Is an AST on top of Gleam. The project is immature, but the idea is there.

My question was more about what you think about the idea of Gleam or Lustre supporting in the future JSX-like syntax. This is the final piece for me to be fully in love.

Not a deal breaker at all with AI I don't feel the pain of writing UI with Lustre but is hard to see coming from JSX

[lpil]

It is a fork of Gleam itself. It is a new Gleam-inspired language that has incompatible syntax with Gleam, and a new set of tooling that is distinct from Gleam's. It is not a fork of the Gleam compiler, but that is not required to fork a language.

No one has made a proposal for a new language feature in Gleam that would enable such a syntax. If you have an idea this post goes into detail about how to refine the idea and create a proposal: https://lpil.uk/blog/how-to-add-metaprogramming-to-gleam/ It talks about metaprogramming proposals specifically, but its advice is applicable to all language features.