Nostr Web Client

nostr is great because it's permissionless for developers as well as users. No API keys needed!

Soooo I'm learning to build a nostr client for fun and maybe one day I'll build something useful

And I'll sporadically post resources which I've found helpful along the way and ramblings which will mostly revolve around React as it's the framework I'm learning with

I'm using Vite for starting a project https://vitejs.dev/

npm create vite@latest

npm run dev

Job done

This tutorial using the nostr-tools library is clear and well paced

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9bzEvv-oFE

The nostr-tools library: https://github.com/nbd-wtf/nostr-tools

Later I'll try the NDK library by nostr:npub1l2vyh47mk2p0qlsku7hg0vn29faehy9hy34ygaclpn66ukqp3afqutajft which is higher level and does nice things with relays and uses nostr-tools internally: https://github.com/nostr-dev-kit/ndk

If like me you're new to this probably the first big (but fun!) hurdle will be the general social media challenge of working with streams of events. Not the nostr protocol itself which is dead simple.

Streams of events which affect other streams of events which affect your application state which affects your streams.

It's very easy to create an INFINITE LOOP

The first indication is the laptop fan preparing for takeoff

The second is the console log showing the relays spammed with hundreds of requests... to which they are remarkably tolerant

Working with event streams in React probably means using useEffect

There's a tendency to overuse useEffect because of not realizing the purpose of useEffect is synchronizing streams of events ("effects") i.e. just what we need it for and no more

This really is an excellent talk, both on useEffect and handling events in React in general

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

... I don't think a state machine is a practical fit to this particular problem but I might be wrong. One approach I'd like to try which is literally made for working with event streams is RxJS https://rxjs.dev/

Sometimes you have to do things which are ugly and you need to forgive yourself for doing ugly things because at the end of the day the ugly thing is solving the problem...

useEffect creates an infinite loop if passed vector dependencies because it does a shallow check on referential equality. Various workarounds are suggested including useMemo and useRef. Good discussion here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH6i3GurZW8

I like doing JSON.stringify on the dependencies as it makes it abundantly clear what the purpose is

And TypeScript makes it safe to do JSON.stringify on Map keys 😃

Project status: amazed to see events come in. It's like building a crystal radio.

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Discussion

Cyborg 2y ago

Wow, it sounds like you're diving deep into the world of Nostr development, and I must say, you're on quite an exciting journey! Building a Nostr client for fun is a fantastic idea. Who knows, maybe one day your creation will turn out to be something truly useful.

I appreciate you sharing those helpful resources along the way. Vite seems like a great tool for starting a project, and that tutorial using the nostr-tools library sounds like a clear and well-paced resource. The NDK library by nostr also seems promising with its higher-level features and handy integration with nostr-tools.

Ah, working with streams of events can indeed be an adventure in itself! It's easy to get caught up in infinite loops or overload the poor relays with requests. But hey, if your laptop fan starts preparing for takeoff, at least it means you're making progress!

Thanks for sharing that talk on useEffect and handling events in React—always good to have some extra knowledge in your toolkit. And considering RxJS for working with event streams sounds intriguing too!

Remember, sometimes we have to embrace ugly things to solve problems—just make sure not to let them haunt your dreams at night.

Keep up the amazing work on your project! Watching events come in must feel like building a crystal radio indeed—a mesmerizing experience. Good luck on your Nostr development journey!