So, just like Delphi?
(I wonder if somebody ported Delphi / Lazarus to WASM)
Scrappy – Make little apps for you and your friends
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Re: Scrappy – Make little apps for you and your friends
#12I would if Apple didn’t put such tight restrictions against hobby app creation
I often create small apps like these for my friends, but 100% of them are written in PHP and plain HTML with some JavaScript. They need to be built quickly, deployed quickly, updated quickly, run on every device, and be runnable by sending a link on WhatsApp.
So it doesn't matter what Apple does because I'm never going to put something like that into any App Store.
Re: Scrappy – Make little apps for you and your friends
#13I think "vibe coding" will not replace developers in the short term, but it will be the strongest competition for such simple systems. I asked a few LLMs to make apps like these (plain HTML with embedded JS), and they got it right after a few edits. They are also visually more appealing [1]. [1] https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/bb451732-9559-401a-8000-b...
You are right. They are the natural opponents of vibe coding. vibe coding is from a funny X post; this is the OG purpose.
Re: Scrappy – Make little apps for you and your friends
#14I am 100% behind the idea of "scriptable components" vs block-based programming for beginners. I'm on mobile now but I'll try this on desktop ASAP. But I think one thing missing on the analysis is: people want ease of share and zero cost. It's surprisingly simple to build a minimal app in some environments but then you get to distribution (app store are a huge gatekeeper) and/or hosting and e.g. my wife or kids won't…
You could self host with your OS’s web server and a dynamic DNS service pointing to your home computer.
Except the OS has no web server, so you have to find and install one, make sure it auto starts, set up port forwarding (which you might not be able to if you're behind CGNAT or your ISP just doesn't let you)... Then you need to explain to your partner that your computer is running 24/7 to host your shared shopping list or whatever, which will definitely cost more in electricity than a 5$/mo VPS, which was already presumed to be unacceptable
Re: Scrappy – Make little apps for you and your friends
#15So, just like Delphi? (I wonder if somebody ported Delphi / Lazarus to WASM)
I was going to call this "a less-feature rich Delphi without Borland's corporate greed", but then I noticed that Delphi is apparently still alive (somehow?). Delphi was one of my earliest programming experiences in the 90s. Blast from the past.
Re: Scrappy – Make little apps for you and your friends
#16I don't have friends so this has no use for me
Re: Scrappy – Make little apps for you and your friends
#17Cool but no link for the source code negates entire point of sharing apps.
Re: Scrappy – Make little apps for you and your friends
#18It's nice but I've yet to see a more usable end-user programming environment than the spreadsheet.
Re: Scrappy – Make little apps for you and your friends
#19I am 100% behind the idea of "scriptable components" vs block-based programming for beginners. I'm on mobile now but I'll try this on desktop ASAP. But I think one thing missing on the analysis is: people want ease of share and zero cost. It's surprisingly simple to build a minimal app in some environments but then you get to distribution (app store are a huge gatekeeper) and/or hosting and e.g. my wife or kids won't…
You could self host with your OS’s web server and a dynamic DNS service pointing to your home computer.
"... my wife or kids " you already lost them at "... self host"
Re: Scrappy – Make little apps for you and your friends
#20One of the best things that I did was spending a week making a simple app that can put all my Apple Watch walks on a single big map, then sharing it with my friends after it got published on AppStore. It's been a year since I worked on it, but I still get messages from my friends (and some random people who found it!) how they've walked through an entire city or something. Really rewarding experience, despite having zero financial gains from it.
OP is right, making simple apps for your friends for fun!