Hey DEV community! 👋 I recently built a native task manager for macOS that brings the htop experience to the desktop. After sharing it on Reddit and getting amazing feedback, I wanted to share what I learned here as well.
The Project: NeoHtop
NeoHtop is a modern, native process monitoring tool that combines the power of terminal-based system monitors with a clean, desktop-native UI. Check it out:
- 🔗 Website
- 💻 GitHub Repo
Key Features
🚀 Real-time process monitoring
💻 CPU and Memory usage tracking
🎨 Beautiful, modern UI with dark/light themes
🔍 Process search and filtering
📌 Pin important processes
🛠 Process management (kill processes)
🎯 Sort by any column
🔄 Auto-refresh system stats
- and more...
Tech Stack & Architecture
For this project, I went with a Rust and Tauri backend paired with a Svelte frontend. The backend uses the fantastic sysinfo crate to collect system metrics efficiently. What I love about this combination is how Rust handles all the heavy lifting - from process monitoring to CPU/Memory calculations - while Tauri seamlessly bridges the gap between native capabilities and web technologies.
On the frontend side, Svelte has been a joy to work with. Its reactive nature made it perfect for building the UI components that need constant updates. I particularly enjoyed implementing the themes switcher and integrating SimpleIcons to give each process a distinctive visual identity.
Technical Challenges & Solutions
Building NeoHtop came with its fair share of interesting challenges. Performance was the biggest one - keeping everything smooth while updating multiple processes in real-time isn't trivial. The solution came from leveraging Rust's efficiency for heavy computations and establishing a fast IPC bridge to the frontend.
The most... interesting part? Dealing with Apple's certification process 😅. Between code signing, notarization, and configuring entitlements, it felt like navigating a maze. But hey, it was a great learning experience!
Lessons Learned
This project really opened my eyes to the power of Rust and Tauri for desktop applications. The developer experience was fantastic, and the performance speaks for itself. Svelte's simplicity made frontend development a breeze, though I learned to be extra careful when dealing with native APIs, especially on macOS.
What's Next?
I'm excited about the future of NeoHtop! I'm planning to add Linux support, implement more process management features, and include detailed system metrics. Network usage monitoring is high on the priority list too. I'm also planning to write a detailed technical article diving deep into the implementation details, especially around performance optimization and the IPC bridge.
Join the Journey!
I'd love for you to try out NeoHtop and share your thoughts. Have you built desktop apps with Tauri? How was your experience with Rust in desktop development? Let's chat in the comments!
Stay tuned for my upcoming technical deep-dive article where I'll break down the architecture and share some code snippets! 🚀
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