Flutter desktop shells • Hacker News Board

Re: Flutter desktop shells

#31

Post by frou_dh » Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 2:57 PM UTC

s_y_n_t_a_x wrote: post #27

frou_dh wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All these projects are trashing the accepted meaning of "native" GUIs. If it's not using, for example, Cocoa controls on macOS, then how is it native GUI?

If Revery makes use of react-native-macos like ReactXP does, it does infact use Cocoa controls, unlike Flutter.

> Revery is like flutter in that it does not use native widgets. This means more work for us, but also that we have more predictable functionality cross-platform!

Re: Flutter desktop shells

#32

Post by mgamache » Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 2:58 PM UTC

s_y_n_t_a_x wrote: post #21

0xDEEPFAC wrote: post #18

Anyone, is this yet another electron-based thing? I can't really tell from the readme...

It doesn't use a browser to draw the UI, it draws it itself. It's not native UI controls though, they're emulated UI controls.

As another comment said calling this 'native ui' might be misleading. It's native performance, but the UI will (probably) look non-native. It's a move in the right direction, but just understand what you are getting when you sign up. I have some experience using Xamarin which is true native controls for each platform, but has other drawbacks.

Re: Flutter desktop shells

#33

Post by skinnyasianboi » Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 2:58 PM UTC

est31 wrote: post #23

yc-kraln wrote: post #3

I really want to like Flutter, but I someone really don't want to spend the time to learn Dart. I can't really quantify it--some mix of yet-another Proprietary Google Technology, yet another ecosystem, yet another X. I'm tired I just want to build stuff that solves problems.

So what's your alternative? Java Swing? Proprietary Sun (now Oracle) technology. Qt? Proprietary Trolltech tech. Electron? You're back on square one of using Google technology. And winforms, WPF, application kit, etc are all far more proprietary than Flutter.

Kotlin native/multiplatform projects is the answer

Re: Flutter desktop shells

#34

Post by beckler » Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 2:58 PM UTC

sbilstein wrote: post #7

yc-kraln wrote: post #3

I really want to like Flutter, but I someone really don't want to spend the time to learn Dart. I can't really quantify it--some mix of yet-another Proprietary Google Technology, yet another ecosystem, yet another X. I'm tired I just want to build stuff that solves problems.

If you are handy with Java, Typescript or Javascript, Dart is a breeze to learn. I didn't invest any time learning Dart to get productive with it while using flutter.

for me there were only some syntactic sugar things I had to learn.

Re: Flutter desktop shells

#35

Post by yunyu » Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 2:59 PM UTC

abalone wrote: post #29

I just checked out a couple of Flutter’s showcase apps on iOS. The scrolling in the Hamilton app was atrociously stuttery, just really broken. This is on an iPhone X. Then I opened it again and it was fine. Seems like it was doing some initialization work that was blocking the main thread. Not sure if it’s Flutter’s fault but I never see broken scrolling like that on native apps. The other app I tried was some journa…

iOS perf on Flutter has been broken for a while:

https://github.com/flutter/flutter/issues/813

https://github.com/flutter/flutter/issues/28113

I wish the team would prioritize this more, but I guess that's Google for you.

Re: Flutter desktop shells

#36

Post by s_y_n_t_a_x » Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 2:59 PM UTC

est31 wrote: post #23

yc-kraln wrote: post #3

I really want to like Flutter, but I someone really don't want to spend the time to learn Dart. I can't really quantify it--some mix of yet-another Proprietary Google Technology, yet another ecosystem, yet another X. I'm tired I just want to build stuff that solves problems.

So what's your alternative? Java Swing? Proprietary Sun (now Oracle) technology. Qt? Proprietary Trolltech tech. Electron? You're back on square one of using Google technology. And winforms, WPF, application kit, etc are all far more proprietary than Flutter.

ReactXP (https://microsoft.github.io/reactxp/) uses TypeScript and targets mobile and desktop platforms using native controls, not emulated controls.

While Flutter doesn't work yet for desktop or web, ReactXP already works for these environments, and is used in the new Skype for Web.

Windows support is done and targets W10, Xbox, and Windows Mixed Reality. MacOS support is experimental, but mostly working. Linux currently needs an Electron wrapper.

Re: Flutter desktop shells

#37

Post by wootie512 » Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 2:59 PM UTC

I have been a full time Android dev for past 5 years, and have really grown to dislike the work. UI development takes up so much of my time. And usually the fix ends up being some small attribute that only has an effect when combining X and Y UI parts.

Had the chance to do some Flutter work, and really enjoyed it. Could knock out the UI and later modify it with ease. Spent most of my time focusing on app logic, and not tons of UI work.

Happy Flutter is spreading elsewhere, I will try this out and spend some time looking into Hummingbird also.

Re: Flutter desktop shells

#38

Post by asutekku » Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 3:00 PM UTC

jonny_eh wrote: post #25

tadzik_ wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure it is, but I can see why OP looks down on it – just like their web rendering engine, it may be open source, but it's Google holding all the cards and ultimately making all the decisions. It may be opensource now while it's useful for them, but it may end up just like Android over the years: more and more closed bit by bit.

Is Google any worse than some "benevolent dictator for life" like other open-source languages?

Google has abandoned so many projects people (developers) don’t have that much of a faith in them anymore.

Re: Flutter desktop shells

#39

Post by pojntfx » Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 3:00 PM UTC

We already have something like this. It's called the web.

Re: Flutter desktop shells

#40

Post by supergilbert » Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 3:01 PM UTC

skinnyasianboi wrote: post #33

est31 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what's your alternative? Java Swing? Proprietary Sun (now Oracle) technology. Qt? Proprietary Trolltech tech. Electron? You're back on square one of using Google technology. And winforms, WPF, application kit, etc are all far more proprietary than Flutter.

Kotlin native/multiplatform projects is the answer

Exactly. Kotlin for all platforms is the best option for the future.