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Revery – Native, high-performance, cross-platform desktop apps

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Re: Revery – Native, high-performance, cross-platform desktop apps

#41

Post by saagarjha »

jordwalke wrote: post #37
saagarjha wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The number of times I've ever heard anyone complain that VSCode reimplements clickable regions that look exactly the same on all platforms instead of using some ugly stock Windows buttons: zero. The number of times I've been annoyed that Electron apps break some semi-obscure but nevertheless important macOS feature: quite high, and it would be much higher if I hadn't sworn off Electron apps long ago.

I'm curious what kind of features you're referring to.

Good accessibility support, a proper drag and drop implementation, support for services, vibrancy and automatic dark mode support, UI scripting, …

Re: Revery – Native, high-performance, cross-platform desktop apps

#42

Post by dmitriid »

obl wrote: post #19
hutattedonmyarm wrote: post #14

> Revery is the same - aside from platform-specific behavior, if your app looks or behaves differently on another platform, that's a bug! I want my applications to feel like they belong to the platform and not identical on every platform

Of course that's a choice for everyone to make, but I feel like in general the benefit of fitting in the platform is overrated. After all the whole webapp-everything somewhat shows that people don't care that much, they are happy to use GMail for example. Another family of examples would be the big software packages like the Adobe or Autodesk stuff, they tend to have a fairly custom look&feel. IMO it's probably suffi…

What's "modern"? In no particular order (all of the below I've seen broken in numerous ways by non-native GUIs):

- Does it receive proper keyboard focus?

- Does it respond to keyboard input?

- Does it adhere to the OS color theme?

- Does it break OS accessibility features (high contrast/voice over/invert colors/grayscale/font sizes/etc. etc.)?

- Does it respect scaling and resolutions?

- Is font rendering consistent with the rest of the system?

- Are keyboard shortcuts consistent with the rest of the system? Including input fields? Including window/app?

- Does it break the principle of least astonishment? I.e. does it look and behave as other platform-native apps or not?

- Does it handle multi-monitor and multiple resolutions?

- Does it integrate with OS menus/trays/notification centers/what not?

- Does it use and respect the OS clipboard?

- Does it respect left-to-right and right-to-left settings and writing modes?

- Does it integrate with OS services such as system-wide autocorrect? Screen keyboard? Symbols palette/picker?

- Does it respect OS locale settings for dates, times, week numbers and week days?

- Does it follow the OS' HIG and its alternatives?

- Does it integrate with the OS energy management systems?

- Does it integrate with OS-native file dialogs, storage permissions and requirements?

the list just goes on

Re: Revery – Native, high-performance, cross-platform desktop apps

#44

Post by danpalmer »

jordwalke wrote: post #37
saagarjha wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The number of times I've ever heard anyone complain that VSCode reimplements clickable regions that look exactly the same on all platforms instead of using some ugly stock Windows buttons: zero. The number of times I've been annoyed that Electron apps break some semi-obscure but nevertheless important macOS feature: quite high, and it would be much higher if I hadn't sworn off Electron apps long ago.

I'm curious what kind of features you're referring to.

Yeah to me, as someone who considers themselves a Mac power user (12 years of learning keyboard shortcuts and clever system tricks), Electron apps stand out immediately.

There are so many small details, like proxy icons and commonly accepted shortcuts for particular actions. These are things you either get for free or nearly so when writing native apps using the system frameworks, or they are things that people trying to make a consistent app across multiple platforms miss.

As a user, the consistency isn’t really a feature for me. I don’t use windows or Linux on the desktop regularly, so having my editor/chat client/etc behave the same on all three isn’t useful.

Re: Revery – Native, high-performance, cross-platform desktop apps

#45

Post by rapsey »

hutattedonmyarm wrote: post #14

> Revery is the same - aside from platform-specific behavior, if your app looks or behaves differently on another platform, that's a bug! I want my applications to feel like they belong to the platform and not identical on every platform

This sentiment is very common among developers/enthousiasts and virtually non-existent among regular users. Some companies waste way too much money chasing some ideal very few care about, trying to please a segment of the users that are generally never happy anyway.

Re: Revery – Native, high-performance, cross-platform desktop apps

#46

Post by giornogiovanna »

hutattedonmyarm wrote: post #14

> Revery is the same - aside from platform-specific behavior, if your app looks or behaves differently on another platform, that's a bug! I want my applications to feel like they belong to the platform and not identical on every platform

As a user, I prefer consistency across platforms. I don't really want the apps I use to blend into the same gray native soup, anyway. As I see it, the only thing achieved by more consistency within an OS is a thicker garden wall, and I don't really like walled gardens either.

Re: Revery – Native, high-performance, cross-platform desktop apps

#47

Post by rimliu »

rapsey wrote: post #45
hutattedonmyarm wrote: post #14

> Revery is the same - aside from platform-specific behavior, if your app looks or behaves differently on another platform, that's a bug! I want my applications to feel like they belong to the platform and not identical on every platform

This sentiment is very common among developers/enthousiasts and virtually non-existent among regular users. Some companies waste way too much money chasing some ideal very few care about, trying to please a segment of the users that are generally never happy anyway.

I think you got it backwards.

Re: Revery – Native, high-performance, cross-platform desktop apps

#48

Post by galfarragem »

swalladge wrote: post #5

The more I hear about Reasonml the more it intrigues me. This project is obviously in early stages, but it appears to have found a combination of parts from the ocaml and web development ecosystems that just might work well. All the best!

I've much more will to learn ReasonML than Typescript.

Re: Revery – Native, high-performance, cross-platform desktop apps

#49

Post by boudin »

hutattedonmyarm wrote: post #14

> Revery is the same - aside from platform-specific behavior, if your app looks or behaves differently on another platform, that's a bug! I want my applications to feel like they belong to the platform and not identical on every platform

I personally prefer creativity over everything looking the same. I also prefer that people who build things I use spends time on the actual features of the app rather than hoow it looks on this or this operating system. Some level of integration that make sense, sure (like notifications, using native way to select a file, drag'n'drop), but having to look exactly like any other app on the platform i don't see how it's worth the added complexity

Re: Revery – Native, high-performance, cross-platform desktop apps

#50

Post by rapsey »

rimliu wrote: post #47
rapsey wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sentiment is very common among developers/enthousiasts and virtually non-existent among regular users. Some companies waste way too much money chasing some ideal very few care about, trying to please a segment of the users that are generally never happy anyway.

I think you got it backwards.

If users rejected electron apps they would not exist. Platform native is not even a concept 99% of users are familiar with.
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