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Orb is a free and open source web desktop

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Re: Orb is a free and open source web desktop

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

chromeos?

Built in Flutter, I believe.

the underlying system has to be something - it can't be HTML all the way down to the CPU microcode. There was also the short-lived FirefoxOS, which is now https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KaiOS and countless kiosks.

Re: Orb is a free and open source web desktop

#73

General question: Is there an actual use for this kinds of projects, beyond showing what can be done? I have seen many different "web desktop" projects and while most of them were impressive in their own (technical) ways, I could never see the an actual use case for them.

Personally I can see myself using this to access my homelab from work without having to open extra ports. Since I can't install a personal VPN client on my work machine, a web-based desktop behind a login would give me most of what I want.

Why not guacamole or smth

Re: Orb is a free and open source web desktop

#74
post #12

I took a peek at the "Explorer" app code base. PHP + JS + jQuery, but surprisingly readable (but a lot of practices in there that are not exactly considered "best" today). Perhaps we have sunk too deep into the SPA/API rabbit hole that we can no longer appreciate simplicity. https://gitlab.com/hsleisink/orb/-/blob/master/public/apps/e... https://gitlab.com/hsleisink/orb/-/blob/master/public/apps/e...

We are, indeed, in a world where Jquery is now the preferable choice. Frontend development is going through what video games went through in the 80s, so much new shovelware every day that people are eventually going to get tired of it.

I really enjoy using alpine.js. It gives me dead-simple lightweight DOM manipulation with much less code than vanilla JS or jQuery and doesn't require any build systems.

Re: Orb is a free and open source web desktop

#75
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe string interpolation is just a bad idea. Let strings be strings, use string formatting functions if you want to shove data in them.

Or maybe they're a very nice convenience, which is why a lot of modern languages are implementing them. String formatting functions use special strings themselves.

They do, but very well-defined ones, little placeholders that just concern themselves with formatting. You include the whole variable name and that makes it brittle, now random bits of string data have to be kept in sync with actual code, and makes it a lot more unwieldy to format in a way that isn't the default representation.

Re: Orb is a free and open source web desktop

#76
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe they're a very nice convenience, which is why a lot of modern languages are implementing them. String formatting functions use special strings themselves.

They do, but very well-defined ones, little placeholders that just concern themselves with formatting. You include the whole variable name and that makes it brittle, now random bits of string data have to be kept in sync with actual code, and makes it a lot more unwieldy to format in a way that isn't the default representation.

Maybe take a look at lit-html, postgresjs and some others to get a sense of what's possible with good string templating.

Re: Orb is a free and open source web desktop

#77
post #7
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Synology NAS uses something like this for its navigation and even if it's initially strange, you instantly miss it when you access it from your phone, when the UI turns into this nested list which is not intuitive at all

I personally hate this from Synology. While their apps are meaningful structured and look good, it is just a natural mismatch to put sub windows into a parent window. Anyone remembering multi sub window apps in the Microsoft office suite in the 90s/00s. Was also horrible without a browser/html involved. This is definitely a taste thing

Yeah, same. I have a synology NAS and the desktop-of-windows-in-a-window aspect of it just seems archaic to me. I have a browser with tabs, thanks. If I really need two things going, I'll open two tabs or two browser windows.

Re: Orb is a free and open source web desktop

#78
post #12

I took a peek at the "Explorer" app code base. PHP + JS + jQuery, but surprisingly readable (but a lot of practices in there that are not exactly considered "best" today). Perhaps we have sunk too deep into the SPA/API rabbit hole that we can no longer appreciate simplicity. https://gitlab.com/hsleisink/orb/-/blob/master/public/apps/e... https://gitlab.com/hsleisink/orb/-/blob/master/public/apps/e...

SPAs are here due to organisational, not technical reasons.

For large organisations it's easier to manage a team of workers with narrow specialisations than a single, but almost equally productive developer like here.

It's particularly visible in banking applications, where modules are almost completely independent and built by non-overlapping teams, so they take forever to load due to the limitation on concurrent requests in browsers.

Re: Orb is a free and open source web desktop

#79
post #78
post #12

I took a peek at the "Explorer" app code base. PHP + JS + jQuery, but surprisingly readable (but a lot of practices in there that are not exactly considered "best" today). Perhaps we have sunk too deep into the SPA/API rabbit hole that we can no longer appreciate simplicity. https://gitlab.com/hsleisink/orb/-/blob/master/public/apps/e... https://gitlab.com/hsleisink/orb/-/blob/master/public/apps/e...

SPAs are here due to organisational, not technical reasons. For large organisations it's easier to manage a team of workers with narrow specialisations than a single, but almost equally productive developer like here. It's particularly visible in banking applications, where modules are almost completely independent and built by non-overlapping teams, so they take forever to load due to the limitation on concurrent re…

I've been evaluating some self-hosted/open source company management systems this weekend.

Most of them are classic multi-page PHP apps. It's terrible. I can't stand how it always reloads each time I click on something. I remember it didn't bother me much in the past when everything was like that, but today we have much better options.

I went for a SaaS built as a SPA. When I click on something, for example to create a new entity, I get a modal/side-panel immediately. When I want details, I get them much quicker and can return back to the listing immediately.

> It's particularly visible in banking applications, where modules are almost completely independent and built by non-overlapping teams, so they take forever to load due to the limitation on concurrent requests in browsers.

They just can't code SPAs well. It's perfectly possible to have both quick loading times and very separate modules.

Re: Orb is a free and open source web desktop

#80
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SPAs are here due to organisational, not technical reasons. For large organisations it's easier to manage a team of workers with narrow specialisations than a single, but almost equally productive developer like here. It's particularly visible in banking applications, where modules are almost completely independent and built by non-overlapping teams, so they take forever to load due to the limitation on concurrent re…

I've been evaluating some self-hosted/open source company management systems this weekend. Most of them are classic multi-page PHP apps. It's terrible. I can't stand how it always reloads each time I click on something. I remember it didn't bother me much in the past when everything was like that, but today we have much better options. I went for a SaaS built as a SPA. When I click on something, for example to create…

Agreed on all points, it's just that a large part of why they got a foothold is that you can fire one of your three frontend developers on a moment's notice, whereas a single so-called web developer doing their work and more will have leverage.

They're visibly snappier than server-rendered frontends, or even frontends with JS sprinkled on top when done correctly, but large organisations generally don't do them correctly.

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