7 ms·

Vermell – Minimal, dependency-free C++ web framework using epoll

25 points by standar-donkey 16d ago

parasxos 15d ago
[dead]
standar-donkey 16d ago
Hey HN, I built Vermell, a minimal, zero-dependency C++ web framework designed to explore low-level networking, non-blocking I/O with Linux epoll, and simple Express-like routing under the hood. I originally started this ~4 years ago and paused it over socket/memory security concerns. Recently, I picked it back up, audited the codebase, and packaged it with APT, Docker, and an NPX starter. Site & docs: https://vermell.cc/ https://vermell.cc/ Would love any feedback on the architecture, security edge cases, or performance.
- blackfawn 15d ago
  This looks really nice, I'll definitely try it out! I take it by the examples that minimum is C++20? Have you done any benchmarks compared to any others?
winrid 16d ago
You need examples for actually using different databases.
Panzerschrek 16d ago
It looks suspicious. It has only 18 commits, the majority of code was added via single initial commit. is it LLM-generated?
- localhoster 16d ago
  Read through the readme a bit, it's obv it is
  - standar-donkey 14d ago
    I did a lot of documentation using AI, but the original repo is archived within the organization and in my account.
- standar-donkey 14d ago
  [flagged]
- gjvc 16d ago
  sounds like you are envious of their productivity. define "suspicious"
- NewsaHackO 16d ago
  If I were to open source a project these days, I will definitely have my progress be a clean, huge initial single commit. Too many busybodies trying to piece together code forensics to say something is vibe coded or not.
  - gruntled-worker 16d ago
    If new free projects had to have a "100% artisanal" pledge I wouldn't even consider starting one. Hand-crafting the core design is still superior. Not delegating the grunt work for copy-paste level stuff is just wasting time, though. I don't require the circuit boards in my electronics to be hand-drilled either.
    - cstrahan 15d ago
      > I don't require the circuit boards in my electronics to be hand-drilled either. This is the exact example I used the other day. Same with pick-and-place, CNC for subtractive manufacturing, 3D printing for additive, plastic injection molding, etc. I wouldn't want to live in a world where the only option for products produced by such automation were instead done one-off by artisans. Sure, if you want a hand crafted laptop where everything (save for the silicon, I suppose) was hand carved, hand placed, hand soldered, etc, you should, by all means, be allowed to pay $20,000-$200,000 for that privilege, instead of ~$2,000. It's bizarre to me that so many developers are overly attached to typing every individual character. If I could get paid for my sense of knowledge and good judgement to design software while delegating 100% of the process of creating to a team of engineers, I would. And as a staff engineer, I'm already close to that, but there are things I have to roll my sleeves up and handle myself.
  - 1718627440 16d ago
    I write my open source code, because I need it and then maybe some other too. If they don't want to use it, because they wrongly think it's generated, I couldn't care less.
hilti 16d ago
I like the idea and the logo. But some real world examples like database usage, partials within templates and handling forms are missing.
sriniwasx 16d ago
As cool as it sound, do we actually need it? also what problem are we solving? Performance is probably the only angle that has some potential but only short requests, the db and other external IO/services is a bigger bottleneck.
- rfgplk 16d ago
  Because the performance of existing web frameworks is... _absymal_. They are nowhere close to how fast they can be. And I don't mean slower by a bit, I mean close to a factor of 10x. My in-house framework can serve 600-700k requests/s on a single core, while beast (the best c++ framework i could identify) does 250k at best. nginx/apache and other prebaked servers are even slower, at 100k req/s. Tells you all you need to know.
john_smith1 16d ago
[flagged]

[dead]

Hey HN, I built Vermell, a minimal, zero-dependency C++ web framework designed to explore low-level networking, non-blocking I/O with Linux epoll, and simple Express-like routing under the hood. I originally started this ~4 years ago and paused it over socket/memory security concerns. Recently, I picked it back up, audited the codebase, and packaged it with APT, Docker, and an NPX starter. Site & docs: https://vermell.cc/ https://vermell.cc/ Would love any feedback on the architecture, security edge cases, or performance.

blackfawn 15d ago
This looks really nice, I'll definitely try it out! I take it by the examples that minimum is C++20? Have you done any benchmarks compared to any others?

winrid 16d ago

You need examples for actually using different databases.

Panzerschrek 16d ago

It looks suspicious. It has only 18 commits, the majority of code was added via single initial commit. is it LLM-generated?

localhoster 16d ago
Read through the readme a bit, it's obv it is
- standar-donkey 14d ago
  I did a lot of documentation using AI, but the original repo is archived within the organization and in my account.
standar-donkey 14d ago
[flagged]
gjvc 16d ago
sounds like you are envious of their productivity. define "suspicious"
NewsaHackO 16d ago
If I were to open source a project these days, I will definitely have my progress be a clean, huge initial single commit. Too many busybodies trying to piece together code forensics to say something is vibe coded or not.
- gruntled-worker 16d ago
  If new free projects had to have a "100% artisanal" pledge I wouldn't even consider starting one. Hand-crafting the core design is still superior. Not delegating the grunt work for copy-paste level stuff is just wasting time, though. I don't require the circuit boards in my electronics to be hand-drilled either.
  - cstrahan 15d ago
    > I don't require the circuit boards in my electronics to be hand-drilled either. This is the exact example I used the other day. Same with pick-and-place, CNC for subtractive manufacturing, 3D printing for additive, plastic injection molding, etc. I wouldn't want to live in a world where the only option for products produced by such automation were instead done one-off by artisans. Sure, if you want a hand crafted laptop where everything (save for the silicon, I suppose) was hand carved, hand placed, hand soldered, etc, you should, by all means, be allowed to pay $20,000-$200,000 for that privilege, instead of ~$2,000. It's bizarre to me that so many developers are overly attached to typing every individual character. If I could get paid for my sense of knowledge and good judgement to design software while delegating 100% of the process of creating to a team of engineers, I would. And as a staff engineer, I'm already close to that, but there are things I have to roll my sleeves up and handle myself.
- 1718627440 16d ago
  I write my open source code, because I need it and then maybe some other too. If they don't want to use it, because they wrongly think it's generated, I couldn't care less.

hilti 16d ago

I like the idea and the logo. But some real world examples like database usage, partials within templates and handling forms are missing.

sriniwasx 16d ago

As cool as it sound, do we actually need it? also what problem are we solving? Performance is probably the only angle that has some potential but only short requests, the db and other external IO/services is a bigger bottleneck.

rfgplk 16d ago
Because the performance of existing web frameworks is... _absymal_. They are nowhere close to how fast they can be. And I don't mean slower by a bit, I mean close to a factor of 10x. My in-house framework can serve 600-700k requests/s on a single core, while beast (the best c++ framework i could identify) does 250k at best. nginx/apache and other prebaked servers are even slower, at 100k req/s. Tells you all you need to know.

john_smith1 16d ago

[flagged]