Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same for me. I'm so surprised that browser makers still haven't solved this particular problem in spite of all browsers now being multi process.
use `chrome --app`
That doesn't work on macOS.
Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview
231–240 of 268 posts
Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview
#232As a user, I don't like Electron; "webapps" always feel clunky and alien compared to native apps and the rest of the OS. As a developer, I can appreciate Electron's utility in targeting multiple platforms, but one has to wonder: Why isn't there a good, open, cross-platform UI library already, that compiles to the native UI of each OS? Has there even been an initiative to make one? You'd think the global developer com…
> Why isn't there a good, open, cross-platform UI library already, that compiles to the native UI of each OS?
It is either "good native" or cross-platform. But not both in reality.
In principle can do something very basic using stock platform widgets - some application that uses only basic widgets: buttons and plain text textareas - all others are too different on different platforms.
If your app is slightly more than that you will have problems even with basic stuff. Consider this native UI example (Notepad++) : https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/c_lfill,w_... and something like Sublime Text
Notepad++ is a disaster even native platform API. Sublime Text uses custom non-native renderer - consistent UI styling.
Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
> snappy enough to run > Electron is a new brainer Not everyone on earth is a dev/gamer/video-editor. For regular people, electron is a cancer that needs to be nipped in the bud. Remember, 91% of the desktop on earth is Windows (meaning regular USD 300 machines). And of them I'd wager less than 10% fit have machines where electron is snappy (1.2K Thinkpads). What the earth needs is a better cross platform native GUI…
> Not everyone on earth is a dev/gamer/video-editor. For regular people, electron is a cancer that needs to be nipped in the bud. My 10 year old netbook runs RStudio? Discord works great on my 10 year old Dell 2nd screen computer. What doesn't run VSCode?
>What doesn't run VSCode?
Last week was the first time my 2015 XPS laptop started swapping too hard to get any meaningful work done, and that was because I jumped onto a project with a vscode workflow.
Technically it can run vscode fine. But only if it's exclusively vscode.
So now I'm working in my editor of choice most of the time, and then closing all my open applications whenever I need to use the vscode extensions.
Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview
#234What about Flutter? Soon it will be able to run on multi-platform desktops.
Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview
#235Earlier 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.
>If you want to use anything new it's a minefield.
That’s true with any platform. But if you stick with tried and true stuff, it’s hassle free.
I don’t remember the last time I had a layout rendering issue and I write this stuff everyday all day.
Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
The line between advanced text editor and lightweight IDE is basically non existent. Plenty of former sublime users are on VS code now.
So? Plenty of former VScode users are on Sublime, Vim or Emacs now. I really don't get your point.
The person I responded too was saying that Sublime and VS Code are incomparable because they are different types of software.
I was disagreeing with his distinction between advanced text editors and lightweight IDEs.
Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
Qt isn't good enough for you? These days it's even scriptable with JavaScript.
To add some fyi... a lot of Qt experts recommend you restrict the usage of Javscript to the QML layout of GUI controls and data binding. For business logic (especially cpu-intensive tasks), use C++. Example of that "avoid Javascript" advice: deep link: https://youtu.be/vzs5VPTf4QQ?t=30m55s
Even then, you have great bindings like PySide (for Python) that allow you to build Qt apps without resorting to C++. And it will still be snappier, and easier on disk and RAM, than Electron.
Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview
#238Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm actually wading back into the comments here for this specific comment, because it's ridiculous. It's not developer laziness. This is 100% a business decision, and if you've been doing this since the 80s, I'd expect you to know this by now. Do you really think Slack & co chose Electron because it's making developers lives easier? Companies and people choose it because it. just. works. across platforms. This has a…
> Less resources, less platform-specific wizardry, more focus on core features with faster turnaround time. Where can I request the "core features" of performance and usability?
You and I have done this specific dance many times, in case you haven't realized. You've failed to convince me that native wins on this for most devs... we've gone pretty in-depth on this before re: macOS, too. ;P
Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview
#239These 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…
These two "nobody" reasons is why we are tettering on the edge of a browser monopoly, which will likely hurt desktop apps too if they use electron.
Monopoly = IE6, closed source, controlling the web.
Monopoly != multiple large vendors contributing to Chrome/Webkit/etc.
Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
Slack migrating to Electron was by far the worst decision they’ve ever made for UX. That one migration introduced a ton of bugs and platform inconsistencies, most of which are still around. One I just complained about the other day is Electron apparently doesn’t handle font fallback properly, so if I type an emoji that Slack doesn’t support, such as [frozen face], it just renders as a placeholder square in desktop Sl…
Slack doesn’t pick up my system dictionies correctly so I keep getting American English suggestions for words correctly spelt in GB English. It’s very annoying and I have no idea how to fix it. Wouldn’t have this problem with a native app.
Having built this kind of thing natively, you actually might! macOS, for instance, has a few race conditions that can (easily) occur when using the built-in spell/grammar-checking functionality on text field/view instances.
...which is exactly the kind of thing that nobody wants to deal with when trying to ship a product. ;P
This myth that you get these things for free with native apps is just that: a myth.