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Boden – Native mobile cross-platform applications

boden.io

61–70 of 134 posts

Re: Boden – Native mobile cross-platform applications

#61
post #3

This is awesome but man the licensing sucks.. Sounds like to release on the App Store you have to pay for a commercial license? Even a free app?

The licensing is likely intended to ensure sustainability

Perhaps, but it's a bit of a dilemma - a GPL license likely won't allow this to gain enough traction to become sustainable in the first place.

Re: Boden – Native mobile cross-platform applications

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prisoner's dilemma imo. The second group only wins out here because other options exists. If everyone was forced to share all software ala GPLv3 with literally no other alternatives then we would see even more and better software everywhere (maybe).

1. That's a big "(maybe)". 2. The other option does already exist, and that can't be ignored or erased. 3. The second group wins out because most people clearly see that technology isn't the limiting factor in human happiness.

[deleted]

Re: Boden – Native mobile cross-platform applications

#63

I am curious to know if this can also target a desktop toolkit such as gtk/qt/tk/wx and so on. I probably wouldn't want to use such an arrangement as a user, but I could see it being very useful as a developer for testing out app functionality without emulation or a separate device. I also wonder if this will be able to target the puri.sm Librem 5 when that comes out?

There is already an experimental macOSX port in boden. More desktop support is a future goal. The library is designed to support all types of operating systems.

Re: Boden – Native mobile cross-platform applications

#64
post #45

It looked very promising but GPL for mobile iOS and Android Apps It is impossible, even I release the Apps free it is very difficult to work with GPL on those ecosystems. It is sad because it really looks very cool code.

Boden author here, a bit overwhelmed by the feedback. We are in the process of releasing a new version that will change the license to LGPL / Commercial.

Even that makes this a complete nonstarter for almost every one of my clients.

Re: Boden – Native mobile cross-platform applications

#66
post #59
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like what? (earnest question)

Handling callbacks without piles of Rc > to access widget data, or having vectors simulating graphs, the most used data structure for UI widgets, having to deal with use-after-free indexes.

It sounds like you tried to write rust like it's OOP. You're gonna have a bad time if you do that.

>Handling callbacks without piles of Rc> to access widget data

That's why you don't let widgets hold program state, they should just propagate deltas and display current state. It's a different way of thinking about how UI can work, but imho it has a lot of benefits aside from just speed and safety.

>having vectors simulating graphs,

You mean adjacency lists? They're a canonical realization of a graph, and a fast one at that.

>having to deal with use-after-free indexes.

What do you mean by this?

Re: Boden – Native mobile cross-platform applications

#67
While I love C++, I can’t help but see this as the n-th iteration of the noble but impossible pursuit of a cross-platform GUI framework.

Cross-platform GUIs never work. They almost work to the point where managers latch onto the idea because they think it will let them fire half of the engineers, but the end result is always well in the uncanny valley.

Open Gimp on macOS and see what I’m talking about. Or Slack. Or Eclipse. Etc.

Re: Boden – Native mobile cross-platform applications

#68
I don't speak C, but as a long-time web developer, it smells to me to see "Center" capitalized in the flexbox snippet. Why is it different than CSS? How is a developer supposed to understand the capitalization rules?

https://www.boden.io/reference/ui/yoga/layout/

Re: Boden – Native mobile cross-platform applications

#69
post #65

Forget Boden and forget messy C++... use Google backed Flutter framework with Dart. https://flutter.dev Checkout youtube for presentations. Build once for iOS, Android, ChromeOS, Web, All desktops.

As the intro page demonstrates, modern C++ isn't really all that messy. I think there's a solid argument that it's a more dependable option than Dart, which isn't really used by anyone other than Google.

Re: Boden – Native mobile cross-platform applications

#70
post #51

Author here. We didn't expect so much attention and are happy about the feedback! Ask us anything. With regard to the GPL licensing issues brought up here: We are aware that the GPL is not sufficient and we are in the process of adding an LGPL option. This will allow you to publish apps based on Boden on the iOS app store.

How will the license enforce that an app using an LGPL version of the library can't be sold? As such LGPL doesn't mean the consuming app has to be free.
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