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Electron Fiddle: Get started with Electron

electronjs.org

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Re: Electron Fiddle: Get started with Electron

#21

Post by 2h »

aerhardt wrote: post #19
zhs wrote: post #2

Honest question, when solutions like https://github.com/tauri-apps/tauri exist out there that promise smaller build sizes and similar developer experiences, are folks still using Electron to build new apps?

I’ll reply to your question with a question: once VSCode has proved one could build hyperscale complex apps that perform well, would you be fast to bet for less proven tech? I’ve had a great experience using VSCode on occasion (I’m a JetBrains guy), and loads of other people, including some great programmers, rave about it. I’ve similarly had a fairly solid experience with Spotify desktop across different platforms.…

> VSCode has proved one could build hyperscale complex apps that perform well

did it though? It might perform "good enough", but its still an order of magnitude worse than native solutions. the only reason to ever use Electron or similar is for rapid prototyping. once you have an MVP, you should immediately work towards a native solution. people seem to forget that part, out of laziness or ignorance.

Re: Electron Fiddle: Get started with Electron

#22

Post by matt_holden »

aerhardt wrote: post #19
zhs wrote: post #2

Honest question, when solutions like https://github.com/tauri-apps/tauri exist out there that promise smaller build sizes and similar developer experiences, are folks still using Electron to build new apps?

I’ll reply to your question with a question: once VSCode has proved one could build hyperscale complex apps that perform well, would you be fast to bet for less proven tech? I’ve had a great experience using VSCode on occasion (I’m a JetBrains guy), and loads of other people, including some great programmers, rave about it. I’ve similarly had a fairly solid experience with Spotify desktop across different platforms.…

Also: Figma, Linear, Notion, Slack, Superhuman, Pitch, Loom. All Electron.

I’ve never understood the hate Electron gets on HN, when it powers so many great products that users love.

Re: Electron Fiddle: Get started with Electron

#23

Post by simonw »

2h wrote: post #21
aerhardt wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ll reply to your question with a question: once VSCode has proved one could build hyperscale complex apps that perform well, would you be fast to bet for less proven tech? I’ve had a great experience using VSCode on occasion (I’m a JetBrains guy), and loads of other people, including some great programmers, rave about it. I’ve similarly had a fairly solid experience with Spotify desktop across different platforms.…

> VSCode has proved one could build hyperscale complex apps that perform well did it though? It might perform "good enough", but its still an order of magnitude worse than native solutions. the only reason to ever use Electron or similar is for rapid prototyping. once you have an MVP, you should immediately work towards a native solution. people seem to forget that part, out of laziness or ignorance.

What's your theory on why the VS Code team haven't migrated to native solutions for their app?

Re: Electron Fiddle: Get started with Electron

#24

Post by Renaud »

2h wrote: post #21
aerhardt wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ll reply to your question with a question: once VSCode has proved one could build hyperscale complex apps that perform well, would you be fast to bet for less proven tech? I’ve had a great experience using VSCode on occasion (I’m a JetBrains guy), and loads of other people, including some great programmers, rave about it. I’ve similarly had a fairly solid experience with Spotify desktop across different platforms.…

> VSCode has proved one could build hyperscale complex apps that perform well did it though? It might perform "good enough", but its still an order of magnitude worse than native solutions. the only reason to ever use Electron or similar is for rapid prototyping. once you have an MVP, you should immediately work towards a native solution. people seem to forget that part, out of laziness or ignorance.

You have to define ‘worse’ because raw performance isn’t really everything and vscode’s popularity proves it.

Feature set and extensibility have clearly won here. At a certain performance point, it’s good enough and what you can do with it matters more.

I’m not sure you could achieve the sane flexibility in a more native, “bare-metal”, development environment. Possible, yes, but it would probably not be as successful as developing for it would be somewhat harder.

Vscode is “fast” enough. Its extensibility and its ecosystem are what makes it so popular and successful.

I’m not sure you can build the same without trade offs.

Re: Electron Fiddle: Get started with Electron

#25

Post by TexanFeller »

matt_holden wrote: post #22
aerhardt wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ll reply to your question with a question: once VSCode has proved one could build hyperscale complex apps that perform well, would you be fast to bet for less proven tech? I’ve had a great experience using VSCode on occasion (I’m a JetBrains guy), and loads of other people, including some great programmers, rave about it. I’ve similarly had a fairly solid experience with Spotify desktop across different platforms.…

Also: Figma, Linear, Notion, Slack, Superhuman, Pitch, Loom. All Electron. I’ve never understood the hate Electron gets on HN, when it powers so many great products that users love.

The ones of these I've actually used like Slack are doggie doo. Aside from using way more resources than a chat app should, last I checked basic UX was not close to on par with native, like right mouse clicks didn't do anything but bring up the built in browser menus.

Re: Electron Fiddle: Get started with Electron

#26

Post by nocommandline »

zhs wrote: post #2

Honest question, when solutions like https://github.com/tauri-apps/tauri exist out there that promise smaller build sizes and similar developer experiences, are folks still using Electron to build new apps?

Electron is very well known & has a large footprint - lots of existing tutorials, extensions/plugins/libraries, regular bug fixes. There are also lots of existing large Apps that can serve as reference. If you Google - building cross-platform desktop Apps, most of the results will point to electron.

If you already know JavaScript (lots of people do) & are trying to quickly get your App up & running, then it can make sense to just go with Electron rather than trying to learn a new language like Rust.

Both reasons were why I picked electron to build https://nocommandline.com

Yes, Electron Apps are big but in the grand scheme of things, they might not matter so much for now (laptops are being built with bigger memories, Apps are being improved to manage memory).

Re: Electron Fiddle: Get started with Electron

#27

Post by JeremyBanks »

TexanFeller wrote: post #25
matt_holden wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also: Figma, Linear, Notion, Slack, Superhuman, Pitch, Loom. All Electron. I’ve never understood the hate Electron gets on HN, when it powers so many great products that users love.

The ones of these I've actually used like Slack are doggie doo. Aside from using way more resources than a chat app should, last I checked basic UX was not close to on par with native, like right mouse clicks didn't do anything but bring up the built in browser menus.

[dead]

Re: Electron Fiddle: Get started with Electron

#28

Post by AlotOfReading »

simonw wrote: post #23
2h wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> VSCode has proved one could build hyperscale complex apps that perform well did it though? It might perform "good enough", but its still an order of magnitude worse than native solutions. the only reason to ever use Electron or similar is for rapid prototyping. once you have an MVP, you should immediately work towards a native solution. people seem to forget that part, out of laziness or ignorance.

What's your theory on why the VS Code team haven't migrated to native solutions for their app?

They do have a native solution you might be familiar with, "Visual Studio". It took them a solid decade to port it even from 32->64 bit (finally released last year). Hard to blame them for some institutional PTSD around the whole idea of native apps.

Re: Electron Fiddle: Get started with Electron

#29

Post by jeremy_wiebe »

2h wrote: post #21
aerhardt wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ll reply to your question with a question: once VSCode has proved one could build hyperscale complex apps that perform well, would you be fast to bet for less proven tech? I’ve had a great experience using VSCode on occasion (I’m a JetBrains guy), and loads of other people, including some great programmers, rave about it. I’ve similarly had a fairly solid experience with Spotify desktop across different platforms.…

> VSCode has proved one could build hyperscale complex apps that perform well did it though? It might perform "good enough", but its still an order of magnitude worse than native solutions. the only reason to ever use Electron or similar is for rapid prototyping. once you have an MVP, you should immediately work towards a native solution. people seem to forget that part, out of laziness or ignorance.

I use VS Code daily and I have never had performance issues. That obviously doesn’t apply to all folks.

Also, it seems presumptuous to prescribe what appropriate solutions are for all people of all time. There are many, many places where an electronjs would be just fine.

Re: Electron Fiddle: Get started with Electron

#30

Post by rvz »

synergy20 wrote: post #16

I struggled between Flutter and Electronjs, checked at Tauri too. Electronjs does the 3 Desktops (linux,windows,macos). Tuari is new, serves the same user base, smaller, but you need learn Rust. Flutter does 3 Desktops and 2 Mobile platforms(android,ios), but you need learn Dart. While doing my own research, I eventually chose Flutter, reasons are: * it does 5 platforms fairly well * its user base keeps rising rapidl…

I don't see the problem with using Flutter. It has proper support from Google for all the major OSes for both Desktop and Mobile. A worthy and serious alternative to both Electron and React Native. It sits in the middle of being faster and smaller than Electron, and being more easier to pick up than Rust with Tauri.

I would rather build a desktop and mobile app using Dart with Flutter than with Rust using Tauri, especially with in a defined deadline or a rewrite.

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