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Deno Desktop

docs.deno.com

31–40 of 418 posts

Re: Deno Desktop

#31
I don't get the point of this.

The world is trying to make computers faster and more accessible, more web UI slop isn't going to help that. Dumping Javascript entirely is the first step on that road.

Re: Deno Desktop

#32
post #10

Interesting but IMHO as we see on mobile providing WebViews work. Maybe instead of having Electron, Tauri, Electrobun, now Deno desktop but also plenty of alternatives then desktop browsers should provide WebViews on desktop with sandbox and permissions that make those applications usable. The alternatives listed here would just be fallback for a transition period until the WebViews are "good enough".

Is it not a web view? With nodejs capabilities from the “backend” half of the app for normal desktop app filesystem access etc?

If a Web View is not provided by a browser then it's an already installed browser then it's as they say "web rendering engine" that they ship along.

I'm trying to argue that it should already be available via Firefox, Chromium, etc on desktop.

Re: Deno Desktop

#33
post #23
post #10

Interesting but IMHO as we see on mobile providing WebViews work. Maybe instead of having Electron, Tauri, Electrobun, now Deno desktop but also plenty of alternatives then desktop browsers should provide WebViews on desktop with sandbox and permissions that make those applications usable. The alternatives listed here would just be fallback for a transition period until the WebViews are "good enough".

Webviews have always worked since MSHTML, the issue is being comfy helping Google's market share instead of writing portable Web code.

That's a whole can of worms, Micro$lop entangling its own browser with its OS, getting a (gentle) slap on the hand for its abuse of monopoly position for it, having to remove it claiming it's "impossible", etc.

Re: Deno Desktop

#34
post #3

> Web technology is the most widely-known UI toolkit in the world. Poor choice of words there IMHO. The reason Electron apps get a lot of flak is because they are everything _but_ a UI toolkit. They consistently miss the mark in adopting UI patterns from their host OS. Web tech is just web tech. Yes it will allow you to render a button, but even unstyled, the button won't necessarily look native to the OS, and will v…

Every time I use Zed across Linux, macOS and Windows , I'm amazed stable and performant it's GPUI framework is. As a user, I'm very happy with it; of course some basic features like accessibility is missing but I'm sure it will be implemented soon. As a developer, I'm not sure what's the barrier for entry is apart from Rust then again it's the USP as well.

Live reload. GUI development in compiled languages is a pain compared to web development.

Re: Deno Desktop

#35

I don't get the point of this. The world is trying to make computers faster and more accessible, more web UI slop isn't going to help that. Dumping Javascript entirely is the first step on that road.

I've seen variants of this comment for many years. The alternative to "web UI slop" would presumably be one of the many native toolkits.

I see it in a different way. The fact that "web UI slop" has managed to make great inroads on the desktop is an indictment of the state of native toolkits. If you think it's a problem that desktop apps are being written with web toolkits, the solution for that isn't to shame (as the term "web UI slop" clearly tries to do), but rather to figure out how to improve the native toolkits.

The opportunity to improve those toolkits was always there, and the ball was dropped.

Re: Deno Desktop

#37

As much as I like cross-platform stuff, I also really like native UIs that follow native UX patterns, etc.

We spend a lot of time using different browsers. As far as I know there no web engine that use native OS UI for rendering.

Re: Deno Desktop

#38
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time I use Zed across Linux, macOS and Windows , I'm amazed stable and performant it's GPUI framework is. As a user, I'm very happy with it; of course some basic features like accessibility is missing but I'm sure it will be implemented soon. As a developer, I'm not sure what's the barrier for entry is apart from Rust then again it's the USP as well.

Live reload. GUI development in compiled languages is a pain compared to web development.

Try dioxus, it has live reload but it's a work in progress.

Re: Deno Desktop

#39
post #20
post #3

> Web technology is the most widely-known UI toolkit in the world. Poor choice of words there IMHO. The reason Electron apps get a lot of flak is because they are everything _but_ a UI toolkit. They consistently miss the mark in adopting UI patterns from their host OS. Web tech is just web tech. Yes it will allow you to render a button, but even unstyled, the button won't necessarily look native to the OS, and will v…

Yeah, it is mostly laziness and cost cutting at the expense of users. Nowadays there isn't even an excuse anymore, just vibe code it away in native frameworks.

When I can modify my desktop/theme (KDE) with css I will happily start doing it since that sounds easy.
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