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Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview

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Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview

#51

Post by mch82 »

Klonoar wrote: post #5

These projects completely overlook _why_ people choose Electron over the system view. - Nobody wants to be testing against multiple browser/rendering engines in 2019. - Nobody wants to wait for a vendor to update their implementation when Chrome has the feature available almost immediately. Edit: Since I can already see the litany of armchair-quarterback-desktop-app-authors, I'm just going to link to the comment from…

> Nobody wants to be testing against multiple browser/rendering engines in 2019

Yes, lots of projects want multiple, competitive rendering engines.

It used to be that Windows was the only viable target OS for commercial software. Firefox and Safari gave IE competition and gave developers who wanted to target Mac and Linux a way to get a foot in the door. That kicked off the whole generation of web apps we’ve just lived through. If developers give up on Gecko and WebKit, then they allow a monopoly again. And since Electron is made by GitHub and is now owned by Microsoft, Microsoft will again have the monopoly (with the caveat that Google has primary influence over Blink).

Render engine competition keeps web standards relevant, which keeps the web open. Take away competition & we’ll be back in a world where people build to IE6 for a decade instead of targeting standard HTML/CSS/JS.

Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview

#52

Post by finchisko »

Klonoar wrote: post #5

These projects completely overlook _why_ people choose Electron over the system view. - Nobody wants to be testing against multiple browser/rendering engines in 2019. - Nobody wants to wait for a vendor to update their implementation when Chrome has the feature available almost immediately. Edit: Since I can already see the litany of armchair-quarterback-desktop-app-authors, I'm just going to link to the comment from…

I want small app package. By not bundling webview, deskgap looks perfect to me.

Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview

#53

Post by lugg »

onion2k wrote: post #39
tambourine_man wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Nobody wants to be testing against multiple browser/rendering engines in 2019 Nobody does. CSS is pretty mature, a difference in rendering between modern engines is extremely rare

That just isn't true. You only need to browse caniuse.com for 5 minutes to see there are significant differences between browsers even for mature CSS features. If you want to use anything new it's a minefield.

Not sure why your ADHD fuelled shiny seeking is an excuse for the shitshow that is electron. Just don't use new stuff?

I'm also unsure how it is even supposed to solve that specific issue considering my laptop is currently running at least two versions of electron for different apps, both of which render text as their primary directive.

Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview

#55

Post by [deleted] »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #42
ploxiln wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't consider Slack and Spotify to be good at making applications (despite their popularity). These are the least efficient chat app and least efficient music app ever, in a multi-decade history of chat and music apps, which didn't have the overflowing abundance of convenience and productivity offered by Electron. (This is like the obviously silly quote "we lose money on every sale, but we'll make it up in volume!…

> These are the least efficient chat app and least efficient music app ever Which 99% of users never care about. The idea that large memory usage is a negative business driver is almost laughable at this point, yet for some reason it is a huge pet peeve among lots of technologists.

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview

#56

Post by EGreg »

Klonoar wrote: post #5

These projects completely overlook _why_ people choose Electron over the system view. - Nobody wants to be testing against multiple browser/rendering engines in 2019. - Nobody wants to wait for a vendor to update their implementation when Chrome has the feature available almost immediately. Edit: Since I can already see the litany of armchair-quarterback-desktop-app-authors, I'm just going to link to the comment from…

I wonder how all those commenters from HN who always say “we should have more competition in the brower engines” feel about your sentiment.

Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview

#58

Post by EGreg »

mch82 wrote: post #51
Klonoar wrote: post #5

These projects completely overlook _why_ people choose Electron over the system view. - Nobody wants to be testing against multiple browser/rendering engines in 2019. - Nobody wants to wait for a vendor to update their implementation when Chrome has the feature available almost immediately. Edit: Since I can already see the litany of armchair-quarterback-desktop-app-authors, I'm just going to link to the comment from…

> Nobody wants to be testing against multiple browser/rendering engines in 2019 Yes, lots of projects want multiple, competitive rendering engines. It used to be that Windows was the only viable target OS for commercial software. Firefox and Safari gave IE competition and gave developers who wanted to target Mac and Linux a way to get a foot in the door. That kicked off the whole generation of web apps we’ve just liv…

I’m going to disagree. Over the two decades I have been programming I have come to appreciate the benefit of Open Source Collaboration vs competition. Competition between platforms is good, but it’s not the best. Because those who produce content waste millions of hours collectively trying to address every little quirky difference between the platforms. And the standards only help so much, whether it’s POSIX or WHATWG.

The real reason MS and IE were not so good is because they were a closed source monopoly! And moreover the copyright was enforced by the government.

Now even M$ switched over to WebKit / Blink.

Collaboration beats competition in the end.

Wikipedia beat Britannica quite handily. And it beat Encarta, too.

Open source beat closed source over time.

The Web beat AOL and Compuserve.

Science beat secret cults and alchemy.

Today Pharma is using patents and competition. People are prevented from building on each other’s work in microbiology but not in other sciences. Isn’t that wild?

I would rather have lots of people adding to one snowball platform, than having competing platforms. AS LONG AS that platform is open source and anyone can use it for any purpose. If your commits don’t make it into the core, just market them until they get popular enough. Compatibility is the goal, though.

Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview

#59

Post by pjmlp »

Klonoar wrote: post #5

These projects completely overlook _why_ people choose Electron over the system view. - Nobody wants to be testing against multiple browser/rendering engines in 2019. - Nobody wants to wait for a vendor to update their implementation when Chrome has the feature available almost immediately. Edit: Since I can already see the litany of armchair-quarterback-desktop-app-authors, I'm just going to link to the comment from…

Right on, this generation has no right to complain about IE only web sites. /s

Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview

#60

Post by toper-centage »

aylmao wrote: post #49
Klonoar wrote: post #5

These projects completely overlook _why_ people choose Electron over the system view. - Nobody wants to be testing against multiple browser/rendering engines in 2019. - Nobody wants to wait for a vendor to update their implementation when Chrome has the feature available almost immediately. Edit: Since I can already see the litany of armchair-quarterback-desktop-app-authors, I'm just going to link to the comment from…

> Nobody This is like claiming nobody wants to write C because no one wants to manage their own memory in 2019, or miss out on all the cool new packages in the JS ecosystem. Evidently _some people_ do. I can assure you there's at least number _n > 1_ of people who care more about app size than either of your points. I personally wrote a side project in system web-view, because I don't want my macOS-only system-tray a…

I mean, fuck the users. Will nobody think of the poor poor developers?
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