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Building a new Windows 3.1 app in 2019: A Slack Client

yeokhengmeng.com

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Re: Building a new Windows 3.1 app in 2019: A Slack Client

#51

Post by marton78 »

bonzini wrote: post #47
rvanmil wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> More seriously, this is an excellent proof-of-concept that a Slack client does not need to use hundreds of MB of RAM and consume most of a modern CPU core to provide its basic functionality. If you’re so sure that this is possible, then where is the Electron competitor which allows us to build cross platform applications like this, with the same levels of productivity and a consistent and decent user interface? No…

Qt and to some extent GTK+ come close. GTK+ can be programmed in Vala which is a fine language that transpiles to C and supports idioms such as asynchronous programming.

That's cross platform for Windows, Mac and Linux, but what about Web, Android and iOS?

Re: Building a new Windows 3.1 app in 2019: A Slack Client

#52

Post by codedokode »

rvanmil wrote: post #45
userbinator wrote: post #42

Notice the binary size of the app is only 64KiB. In the demoscene this would be a disqualification as it's 676 bytes over the limit, but in this case I'll overlook it because of the sheer awesomeness of what you've done (and I'm sure trimming off 676 bytes wouldn't be too difficult ;-) More seriously, this is an excellent proof-of-concept that a Slack client does not need to use hundreds of MB of RAM and consume most…

> More seriously, this is an excellent proof-of-concept that a Slack client does not need to use hundreds of MB of RAM and consume most of a modern CPU core to provide its basic functionality. If you’re so sure that this is possible, then where is the Electron competitor which allows us to build cross platform applications like this, with the same levels of productivity and a consistent and decent user interface? No…

Windows 3.1 apps are somewhat cross-platform because they can be run with Wine on Linux.

Re: Building a new Windows 3.1 app in 2019: A Slack Client

#53

Post by tjoff »

marton78 wrote: post #51
bonzini wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Qt and to some extent GTK+ come close. GTK+ can be programmed in Vala which is a fine language that transpiles to C and supports idioms such as asynchronous programming.

That's cross platform for Windows, Mac and Linux, but what about Web, Android and iOS?

You do not want the same UI on desktop and mobile.

Re: Building a new Windows 3.1 app in 2019: A Slack Client

#54

Post by j88439h84 »

rvanmil wrote: post #45
userbinator wrote: post #42

Notice the binary size of the app is only 64KiB. In the demoscene this would be a disqualification as it's 676 bytes over the limit, but in this case I'll overlook it because of the sheer awesomeness of what you've done (and I'm sure trimming off 676 bytes wouldn't be too difficult ;-) More seriously, this is an excellent proof-of-concept that a Slack client does not need to use hundreds of MB of RAM and consume most…

> More seriously, this is an excellent proof-of-concept that a Slack client does not need to use hundreds of MB of RAM and consume most of a modern CPU core to provide its basic functionality. If you’re so sure that this is possible, then where is the Electron competitor which allows us to build cross platform applications like this, with the same levels of productivity and a consistent and decent user interface? No…

It's Beeware. https://beeware.org/

> Write your apps in Python and release them on iOS, Android, Windows, MacOS, Linux, Web, and tvOS using rich, native user interfaces. Multiple apps, one codebase, with a fully native user experience on every platform.

Re: Building a new Windows 3.1 app in 2019: A Slack Client

#55

Post by int_19h »

eb0la wrote: post #24
yeokm1 wrote: post #2

I built a Win 3.1 app during a company hackathon just for fun. Here, I detail learnings and process for how a new old app can be created with the aid of modern tools and hindsight of old technologies. And perhaps what lessons can it offer us today. Without the benefit of modern libraries and languages, I had to read up and take care of many low level details, socket programming, HTTP, JSON parsing, UI design in code…

I expected to be compiled in some kind of VM, not on an actual computer with Windows 3.11 :-). I feel "old-style" documentation is much better than we have now. My most productive _python_ only work times were when I had only the python .hlp file and a _physical_ paper book. What are your impressions?

I still miss the old MSDN offline help system. Once you got the hang of it, most of the time, you could find what you needed right away by typing the right thing in the Index.

Re: Building a new Windows 3.1 app in 2019: A Slack Client

#56

Post by meerita »

ink_13 wrote: post #10

Reading this article and others by the same author on his travails of getting Windows 3.11 to install and then bridging it to modern(-ish) tech was like being transported back to the 90s when I was first learning about computers. Seeing those screenshots of the unmistakable Win 3.1-style dialogs was a real nostalgia hit. What a treat. 10 points (well, an upvote, I guess) for anyone who knows why the Windows DOS-mode…

Yes, the nostalgia hit me hard with this.

Re: Building a new Windows 3.1 app in 2019: A Slack Client

#58

Post by shakna »

marton78 wrote: post #51
bonzini wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Qt and to some extent GTK+ come close. GTK+ can be programmed in Vala which is a fine language that transpiles to C and supports idioms such as asynchronous programming.

That's cross platform for Windows, Mac and Linux, but what about Web, Android and iOS?

Ignoring that you probably _don't_ want the same interface across all of those...

Qt, as well as Windows, macOS and Linux actually can do Android [0] and iOS [1], and Web is halfway there [2].

[0] https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/android.html

[1] https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/ios.html

[2] https://wiki.qt.io/Qt_for_WebAssembly

Re: Building a new Windows 3.1 app in 2019: A Slack Client

#59

Post by shakna »

forgotmypw3 wrote: post #29
yeokm1 wrote: post #2

I built a Win 3.1 app during a company hackathon just for fun. Here, I detail learnings and process for how a new old app can be created with the aid of modern tools and hindsight of old technologies. And perhaps what lessons can it offer us today. Without the benefit of modern libraries and languages, I had to read up and take care of many low level details, socket programming, HTTP, JSON parsing, UI design in code…

If you happen to end up in those environments again, I would appreciate it if you take a look at my prototype web-based message board. It's designed for compatibility, and I've tested a lot of Netscapes and IE4, but nothing on Win311 yet. If you want to leave a comment, you can do so right on the message board. It should work, more likely with JS off.

> It should work, more likely with JS off.

Many of the 3.1-era browsers didn't have a concept of JS yet. If you're relying on noscript at all it won't work.

I did try and check if this was the case, but both links in your profile that it could have been lead to "not found" dreamhost sites.

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