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Electron is flash for the desktop (2016)

josephg.com

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Re: Electron is flash for the desktop (2016)

#71

Post by paraboul »

Etheryte wrote: post #64
paraboul wrote: post #14

FWIW, we're working on https://github.com/nidium/Nidium presicely to fix this. A new kind of browser engine, not based on any existing engine, allowing developers to use a subset of the web (webgl, 2d, layout) without being forced to use a bloated ecosystem (and which also works on mobile and low end device). Previous HN discussion : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6314961

Both your webpage and your docs are riddled with typos and the like. While it isn't indicative of code or project quality, it sure makes taking the project seriously a lot harder.

Hey,

We're French and it's indeed hard for us to get this perfectly right and focusing on the project itself at the same time.

We're planning to move this to github in order to let the community help us on this.

Re: Electron is flash for the desktop (2016)

#72

Post by mijoharas »

t1amat wrote: post #37
jonursenbach wrote: post #17

I don't understand the React Native comparison. AFAIK, you can't build desktop applications with that, nor can you build mobile applications with Electron like you can with React Native.

There is native support for Windows (from Microsoft), macOS, Ubuntu (from Canonical) in addition to the first party support for iOS and Android.

Thanks, I was looking for a linux version.

Re: Electron is flash for the desktop (2016)

#73

Post by andoma »

Ambroos wrote: post #18

A lot of Slack's high (background) CPU usage is caused by GIFs, in my experience. Just did a quick check on my quadcore MBP, having Slack fullscreen out-of-view with nothing animated in view gives it a CPU usage of 0,1% with spikes up to 2,5%. Switch to a conversation with a single animated party parrot emoji, go to another fullscreen app once again, and CPU usage never drops below a whopping 22%. For an animated par…

They can't really blame Chrome/Electron. If you ship it you own it.

Re: Electron is flash for the desktop (2016)

#74

Post by anaisbetts »

Here's the thing. You know what the alternative to all of these Electron apps coming out is? If your answer is "A native Cocoa/WPF app", you are on another planet, the answer is, "It wouldn't exist at all".

Nobody in the last 5-10 years cared about writing Desktop apps before Electron came along, there's basically zero money in it, and it's massively expensive, both in terms of actual dev time per feature (easily 10x the cost), and also in finding specialist developers who know these dated technologies. And as for Qt, Qt has existed for over two decades - if its massive "Beatles walking off the plane" moment hasn't happened by then, sorry, it's not gonna.

But now? People are making all kinds of great new apps, and more often than not, they come out on all three platforms. People are excited about the Desktop again - Electron is so good it's single-handedly revitalizing the platform that two of the largest tech companies in the world are behind, yet couldn't do.

That is a Big Deal.

Re: Electron is flash for the desktop (2016)

#75

Post by api »

Electron is a sub-optimal solution to the fact that desktop development today is horrible. You either have to write your app twice (or three times if you want Linux) or use Qt, which limits you to either C++ or this weird langauge/ecosystem nobody knows called Qt Quick.

Electron lets you write desktop apps that work decently well everywhere in a language you already know.

Re: Electron is flash for the desktop (2016)

#76

Post by blueprint »

loppers92 wrote: post #54

Long time javascript programmers are the loser (if they never learned more than javascript) they don't know how to programming an almost perfect program. That is the reason why they using javascript on Desktop. The average programmer learns just one fucking language but being a good programmer you need at least to learn 2+ languages. That you can see the performance issues in your stack. I started with PHP and javasc…

Or maybe it has something to do with time-to-market for existing web apps, or other loserish things. No, can't be. You must be right. Especially because you know more than one language. After all, when you learn more languages, it makes your words more true!

Re: Electron is flash for the desktop (2016)

#77

Post by brilliantcode »

boskonyc wrote: post #26

Why would a tech company not build its flagship product natively on the platforms where it runs? It seems like a generation drift: an obliviousness to the world outside of JS/web dev, and a general disregard for application performance.

because they don't need to. Our phones and computers aren't where they were 10~15 years ago. The end user doesn't even notice if an app is native or running in Electron.

Given that constraint, time to market becomes crucial as the huge cross platform barrier is significantly reduced by Electron.

It's also a demographic shift. Young developer's aren't coding in Java peak world anymore. We haven't even reached peak Javascript yet.

Re: Electron is flash for the desktop (2016)

#78

Post by mk89 »

All nice comments from the author. Good ideas, except that most of the time these should come from upper-management: security and performance? They are additional features. We'll bother with them later.

Lots of developers have great ideas when they are given space, meaning when it's in the "sprint". Some developers simply don't know about the existence of benchmark tools, etc., but, by experience, many of them know how to google.

What matters is 1) time-to-market, 2) it's swooshy enough, 3) it does what it's supposed to do.

I may also completely wrong: it's not always management to be bad here. Sometimes, it's a "bunch" of people who think they are doing the right thing (like choosing a technology instead of another). Management can't always be blamed for it (of course not) - especially when one of the people choosing is trustworthy.

Re: Electron is flash for the desktop (2016)

#80

Post by josephg »

and0 wrote: post #20
Ambroos wrote: post #18

A lot of Slack's high (background) CPU usage is caused by GIFs, in my experience. Just did a quick check on my quadcore MBP, having Slack fullscreen out-of-view with nothing animated in view gives it a CPU usage of 0,1% with spikes up to 2,5%. Switch to a conversation with a single animated party parrot emoji, go to another fullscreen app once again, and CPU usage never drops below a whopping 22%. For an animated par…

I want to say that VS Code had the same issue because of the blinking cursor, which was controlled by a CSS property to toggle.

I'm consistently blown away that stuff like this gets past testing.

Personally I think every software engineer should have a CPU meter of some for running on their machine while developing. Its an essential element of seeing what you're doing. How can you write decent software without having even that much visibility over what your computer is up to while your code runs?

These huge CPU sinks making it through to release required nobody to even glance at a CPU graph.

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