Gergely Laborci
Pécs, Hungary · Web Developer since 1999 · Teaching since 2010
Full-stack developer, UX/UI practitioner, framework builder, and university lecturer. I've been shaping the web since PHP ruled the world — and I still love every layer of it: backend, frontend, design, and everything in between.
Hello,
I've been building for the web since 1999 — back when PHP was the obvious choice and frameworks didn't really exist yet. Over the decades I've written backends, designed interfaces, crafted UX flows, and built multiple frameworks in both PHP and TypeScript — mostly because the right tool simply didn't exist at the time. In 2015 I built my own reactive framework, years before reactivity became a mainstream idea.
In 2019 I discovered Svelte — and it was an immediate match. The philosophy, the compiler approach, the simplicity of the API: it finally matched how I think about UI. Svelte 5 with its runes model only made that conviction stronger.
Since 2010 I've been teaching at the University of Pécs, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology — running courses in UX/UI Design, Programming, and Web Programming — while building AtomForge since 2025.
Why AtomForge?
Although AtomForge started as just a UI library, initially inspired by the beautiful aesthetics of tools like shadcn/ui, it quickly evolved into something much broader. Ultimately, I decided to take the most important components from my own daily stack and share them as a cohesive system, hoping it might be just as useful to others as it is to me.
It follows a very specific philosophy: I believe a library should be a proper dependency. Install it once, import what you need, and get a consistent, ergonomic fluent API throughout. No copy-pasting, no version drift, no surprises.
Journey
Wrote my first game
Created a car racing game in ZX Spectrum BASIC. This was the moment I fell in love with programming.
Started web development
PHP was the cool kid on the block. Built everything from scratch — backends, frontends, even the design.
Started teaching at University of Pécs
Joined the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology. Teaching UX/UI Design, Programming, and Web Programming.
Built a reactive framework from scratch
Before reactivity was mainstream, I built my own — because the right tool simply didn't exist yet. One of several frameworks I've written in PHP and TypeScript over the years.
Discovered Svelte
Found the framework that finally matched how I think about UI. The philosophy, the simplicity, the compiler approach — it all clicked immediately.
Started building AtomForge
Loved the shadcn aesthetic, hated the install model and the API. Built something better — a proper npm package with a fluent, composable API at its core.
Teaching
University of Pécs
Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
The goal isn't to train UX/UI professionals, but to ensure programming students understand the core concepts and mechanisms. I want them to be able to confidently participate in UX/UI discussions during their careers. Programming isn't just about writing lines of code; it's about understanding the problem.
I teach this in their final semester. By this point, students have acquired the fundamentals, and my job is to synthesize that into complex, applied knowledge. It's a project-based course where we introduce architectural concepts on top of what they already know, and they work on comprehensive projects.
While previous semesters cover the basics, my course provides deep theoretical insight into the entire modern web landscape. From ORMs and frontend/backend meta-frameworks all the way down to GDPR compliance. They get exactly the kind of knowledge they will need when working on real, production-grade projects.