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insin/react-hn

★ 2,212 · JavaScript · NOASSERTION · updated Mar 2021

React-powered Hacker News client

A React/Firebase HN client from 2015-era React, back when mixins were the pattern and class components were new. It's a well-featured HN reader with comment threading, new-comment highlighting, and real-time updates via Firebase. Aimed at developers who want a reference implementation of a real-world React app from that period.

New comment highlighting is genuinely thoughtful — tracks per-item last-visit in localStorage and marks comments that arrived while you're actively reading. Collapsible threads with child counts and auto-collapse of stale threads is the kind of UX detail most HN clones skip. Firebase as the data layer means zero backend to maintain; the real-time updates are free and reliable. The settings surface (show dead/deleted, auto-collapse, reply links) covers edge cases most clones ignore entirely.

Dead since 2021 and written with class components and mixins — both patterns React deprecated years ago. If you're learning modern React, this teaches you the wrong thing. The mixin-heavy architecture in `src/mixins/` is particularly dated; hooks replaced all of this. No TypeScript, no tests anywhere visible in the tree. The nwb build toolchain it uses is itself unmaintained and will fight you on Node versions above 16.

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