What PWA Can Do Today • Hacker News Board

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#101

Post by marvinblum » Mon, Jan 08, 2024, 5:02 PM UTC

palata wrote: post #99

marvinblum wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But why do individuals push for that? Because we don't have the resources to build a native app for every OS out there.

Are you using Windows? I am happy that the people who contributed Linux/BSD/Android/iOS did not have your mentality, otherwise I would be forced to use Windows everywhere.

I'm on Fedora. Of course, there has to be a native UI, but I'm running a two-person company for example. How on earth are we supposed to manage three or more platforms (browser, Android, iOS)?

We're not lazy but limited by our mortality.

> Because they don't know anything other than webtech and don't want to learn?

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#102

Post by palata » Mon, Jan 08, 2024, 5:02 PM UTC

exabrial wrote: post #60

My estimate is there are 5,000-10,000 really poor PWA/SPA/etc for every actual good PWA/SPA. Going to a website and it loads some massive chunk of overengineered javascript when all I need to do is display one piece of text is infuriating.

I think we have to get used to it, it's the new engineering way. "I see potential profit with blockchain, let's rush and do whatever quick project I can imagine with blockchain". "I see potential with AI, let's rush and do the same with AI".

It's not important to make a good product anymore: you need to be the first or the luckiest. Good products don't win because they are drowned in all the crap. And AI will soon make it infinitely easier to generate more crap.

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#103

Post by mvkel » Mon, Jan 08, 2024, 5:03 PM UTC

As soon as I tapped into this site, the browser's back button got hijacked and half of the features don't work.

This is why (imo) PWAs should not try to replicate native app functionality, but instead recognize the web for what it is and play to its strengths.

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#104

Post by RomanPushkin » Mon, Jan 08, 2024, 5:04 PM UTC

Is there such a thing as _live_ geolocation?

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#105

Post by bad_user » Mon, Jan 08, 2024, 5:04 PM UTC

palata wrote: post #91

PWAs to me sound like "we want everyone to use the same OS (in this case something like ChromeOS), because that's more productive for us". I get that Google pushes for PWAs because that's how they conquer the OS world. But why do individuals push for that? Because they don't know anything other than webtech and don't want to learn? Have a look at Kotlin and Swift guys, it's kinda cool!

The biggest reason, as I see it, is that the web is a free market, whereas on Android's and iOS's app stores you're beholden to Google's and Apple's taxes, restrictions and whims.

The second reason is the resources available. Going web first means your app is instantly available everywhere, even if not perfect.

We can learn Android and iOS development for sure, but how about both? And have you ever seen shops with the same developers targeting both iOS and Android with their native stacks? I haven't. Besides the web, you're limited in available options for reusing existing code and knowledge, such as React Native, and using cross-platform toolkits may be more risky than targeting the open web.

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#106

Post by wackget » Mon, Jan 08, 2024, 5:07 PM UTC

asveikau wrote: post #39

A GitHub repo with just a bug tracker and no source code is kind of lame. If they really want to promote PWA they should have full source on there.

They don't want to promote PWAs. They want to promote their own business.

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#107

Post by magnat » Mon, Jan 08, 2024, 5:07 PM UTC

Doesn't work with JavaScript disabled.

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#108

Post by sccxy » Mon, Jan 08, 2024, 5:08 PM UTC

RomanPushkin wrote: post #104

Is there such a thing as _live_ geolocation?

Geolocation API has "watchPosition", so it sends updates as often OS/browser decides.

Was very unreliable in iOS, but is much better now.

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#109

Post by zx_q12 » Mon, Jan 08, 2024, 5:10 PM UTC

SPBS wrote: post #25

Call me back when PWAs can be registered as share targets on iOS (i.e. it appears as an app on the share sheet when you click "share" on a web page). I really want the ability to bookmark sites I browse on my phone and save it to a self-hosted web application.

If you just want something for yourself, you can set that up with a Shortcut and the "Get contents of url" action. You can then configure the shortcut to be available in the Share page so you could then easily share links/whatever to your self hosted app

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#110

Post by asveikau » Mon, Jan 08, 2024, 5:10 PM UTC

sevenf0ur wrote: post #74

martinald wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume the built in one that OP has? https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Barcode_Det...

Safari doesn't support that API whatsoever so a third party JS library is really your only option. The landscape of open source barcode detection libraries is bleak at the moment.

Can't you take a C library and compile to JS?