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Wails: Build cross-platform applications using Go

wails.io

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Re: Wails: Build cross-platform applications using Go

#21

Post by solardev »

pjmlp wrote: post #18
dewey wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Web technologies belong in the browser That ship has sailed a long time ago. These days sometimes whole operating systems are based on HTML based interfaces (LGs TV OS would be one example).

WebOS applications don't ship a browser alongside them, they use what is already installed. Doing Web development alongside native since Web exists, hasn't made me like shipping browsers with applications (or Web views) any better during the last 20 years.

This framework does this same thing:

> It does not embed a browser, so it is resource efficient. Instead, it uses the native rendering engine for the platform. On Windows, this is the new Microsoft Webview2 library, built on Chromium.

https://wails.io/docs/introduction#native-elements

Re: Wails: Build cross-platform applications using Go

#23

Post by solardev »

dosshell wrote: post #9

It states you can use native components and that it uses webkit. How does this work? I thought native components meant using the OS gui like Win32/MFC etc. How does this work through webkit? Does webkit have Win32 bindings?

Only a couple of elements are truly native: dialogs (like file pickers) and menus (like the old-fashioned app kind, File, Edit, etc.). See https://wails.io/docs/reference/runtime/dialog and https://wails.io/docs/reference/runtime/menu/

Everything else is rendered in a DOM.

And it doesn't always use WebKit; on Windows it would use Microsoft WebView2, which uses Blink/Edge.

Re: Wails: Build cross-platform applications using Go

#24

Post by pjmlp »

solardev wrote: post #21
pjmlp wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WebOS applications don't ship a browser alongside them, they use what is already installed. Doing Web development alongside native since Web exists, hasn't made me like shipping browsers with applications (or Web views) any better during the last 20 years.

This framework does this same thing: > It does not embed a browser, so it is resource efficient. Instead, it uses the native rendering engine for the platform. On Windows, this is the new Microsoft Webview2 library, built on Chromium. https://wails.io/docs/introduction#native-elements

You missed my remark between parenthesis.

Re: Wails: Build cross-platform applications using Go

#25

Post by stu2b50 »

howeyc wrote: post #2

I don't get these projects. If you're going to write an html/js app, why not just launch the web browser against the local url of your app?

Because normal users expect a unified app experience and launching a local server that opens a tab in the browser is not an acceptable experience to them.

There's also limitations with that, like the inability to use the browser native file browser picker.

Re: Wails: Build cross-platform applications using Go

#26

Post by solardev »

pjmlp wrote: post #24
solardev wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This framework does this same thing: > It does not embed a browser, so it is resource efficient. Instead, it uses the native rendering engine for the platform. On Windows, this is the new Microsoft Webview2 library, built on Chromium. https://wails.io/docs/introduction#native-elements

You missed my remark between parenthesis.

Not really sure what your point is. That these things are unimpressive? Agreed. It's just one lazy approach to a problem (multi-platform apps) that's not easy to solve. Webviews are a cheap way to get there.

Re: Wails: Build cross-platform applications using Go

#27

Post by pjmlp »

solardev wrote: post #26
pjmlp wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You missed my remark between parenthesis.

Not really sure what your point is. That these things are unimpressive? Agreed. It's just one lazy approach to a problem (multi-platform apps) that's not easy to solve. Webviews are a cheap way to get there.

The way is to use the Web as is, and native for everything else.

Re: Wails: Build cross-platform applications using Go

#28

Post by solardev »

pjmlp wrote: post #27
solardev wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really sure what your point is. That these things are unimpressive? Agreed. It's just one lazy approach to a problem (multi-platform apps) that's not easy to solve. Webviews are a cheap way to get there.

The way is to use the Web as is, and native for everything else.

Yeah, if you have unlimited time and money.
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