Live data from Hacker News

What PWA Can Do Today

whatpwacando.today

171–180 of 285 posts

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#171

This should have big warnings on it. Some of these are not web standards; they are features implemented unilaterally by Google in Blink that have been explicitly rejected by both Mozilla and Apple on privacy and security grounds. Take Web Bluetooth, for example: Mozilla: > This model is unsustainable and presents a significant risk to users and their devices. — https://mozilla.github.io/standards-positions/#web-bluet…

I used to have this view until I wanted to build a PWA that communicated with a cash register drawer and found only Chrome supports WebSerial (although others are positive on it).

It may be possible on WebUSB but WebSerial is the perfect match for what I need.

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#172
post #80
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for putting it in context, the Bluetooth API has been a big source of frustration in my exploration of PWAs. So many simple setup apps wouldn't need to be native. A cross platform Bluetooth API for the web would provide really easy PoC with MCUs.

> So many simple setup apps wouldn't need to be native. If they are simple, why not making them native?

Provisioning IoT devices has to be done through native apps if Web Bluetooth isn't viable. It's a total PITA.

Web BT permissions can be disabled if not needed. I reject Mozilla's and Apple's reasoning.

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#173
Sure would be nice if Firefox desktop would join the browsers that support PWAs. We build an app that has been PWA-first, but it is unfortunate that this generally requires users to have a Chrome instance running. Would much rather point people to Firefox, and it seems like it would be to their advantage to give apps a reason to recommend FF, if they built a smoother PWA integration than Chrome.

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#174
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No doubt, but Google probably could've worked with Mozilla and Apple to figure out an approach that addressed their concerns instead of disregarding them and implementing it as-is.

Maybe I remember it wrong, but I think Mozilla said it is unacceptable in any form and they will not even consider it. I don't like the google way either, but Mozilla is stubborn here and Apple fights for control over app market.

So sad, if FirefoxOS still where a thing they wouldn't bat an eye.

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Wasm should also work, no?

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#176
post #102

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 ma…

Please don’t call this engineering.

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#177
post #112

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.

Gatekeeping is strong here. Most apps do not need to be made by 10x developers who code in assembly.

Some things should be kept at gates.

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#178
If this site is supposed to be a good demo of what they’re capable of, it’s failing pretty hard for me.

- Takes ages to finish loading

- huge number of features/functionality I don’t want a website to have over my phone/desktop

- navigation is broken: swiping back causes some double-navigation stutter.

- history is broken: attempting to navigate back to HN loads the same page again and again with no content change a stack of times, before I can finally escape.

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#179
This blows me away! I did a tiny bit of prototyping a year or so ago with an app for react native that required text to speech.

Maybe I'm just a little slow with things but alongside janky styling I found it insanely difficult to implement any kind of offline native text to speech (I.e. not just sending sound files over an api call to anither api).

Seeing that it (and lots of other things) are now implementable with PWAs fills me with excitement that "write once, run on iOS/android" might be becoming a real option for apps.

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're still focused on the Bluetooth, but that's just one tiny part of a larger pattern of Google ignoring the rest of the vendors and doing what they want. The death of the web, if it occurs, will be death by a thousand cuts.

Bluetooth is the example that you chose, and that I used to make a general point, which also applies to any other API.

I'm not OP
Post reply on HN