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Predicting an enormous waste of time building UI frameworks with WASM and WebGPU

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Predicting an enormous waste of time building UI frameworks with WASM and WebGPU

#11

Post by zigzag312 »

frou_dh wrote: post #10
zigzag312 wrote: post #9

Or some of these framework will finally mature in the next decade and solve remaining UX issues. This will make branded, OS-specific UI frameworks mostly irrelevant. There will be less of platform lock-in. Users will be free to migrate between platforms, as most applications will be avaliable on multiple platforms by default. UI/UX will become independent of a platform's brand. This will lead to increased use of alte…

Sounds familiar. Dub it J4Z - Java For Zoomers

Java used to require JVM to be present on the system, which was fine for monolithic server running a single Java application (were Java succeeded), but not for end user applications.

Now self-contained apps are becoming a thing, which solves the problem Java apps had in the past.

Re: Predicting an enormous waste of time building UI frameworks with WASM and WebGPU

#12

Post by jimmySixDOF »

>Meanwhile, little to no progress will be made developing techniques and frameworks to build apps that are actually better for the end user.

If thats part of the criteria then I'll take the bet provided I am alive and solvent at the time.

My reasoning is that Spatial Computing is going to substantially progress the world of open web UI using WebGPU & WASM in ways that are not connectable to your assumed native primacy of scroll bars and menu elements as stated.

While similar arguments exists between Web and client side XR applications based on FPS & polygon counts, it doesn't mean that WebXR can't "build apps that are actually better for the end user" and do it better than with existing web frameworks. That even remains true if Apple ends up being a lone immersive web standard unto itself, intentionally hobbled at the knees to promote either Experience Quality or App Store lock-in. Not ideal but not removing the ability for WASM & WebGPU to run some novel XR workloads everywhere else in which case I'll be interested to see what $1000 looks like adjusted for inflation in 10yrs although a lawyer might argue the language points upto 2041, the technical end of the next decade.

Re: Predicting an enormous waste of time building UI frameworks with WASM and WebGPU

#13

Post by notadev »

frou_dh wrote: post #10
zigzag312 wrote: post #9

Or some of these framework will finally mature in the next decade and solve remaining UX issues. This will make branded, OS-specific UI frameworks mostly irrelevant. There will be less of platform lock-in. Users will be free to migrate between platforms, as most applications will be avaliable on multiple platforms by default. UI/UX will become independent of a platform's brand. This will lead to increased use of alte…

Sounds familiar. Dub it J4Z - Java For Zoomers

Call it ActiveZ

Re: Predicting an enormous waste of time building UI frameworks with WASM and WebGPU

#14

Post by zigzag312 »

gedy wrote: post #7

I don't mind some people wanting to do client side web UI in their favorite server-side language, but do think it's a mistake for companies to have even more fragmented tech stacks and seems a waste of businesses time. But I do worry about the web becoming this opaque wasm blob that you can't inspect (easily) or manipulate with addons, css, etc.

> I do worry about the web becoming this opaque wasm blob that you can't inspect (easily) or manipulate with addons, css, etc.

This is the biggest downside IMO. If web moves from readable HTML documents to WASM apps, many things will be lost.

Re: Predicting an enormous waste of time building UI frameworks with WASM and WebGPU

#16

Post by bjconlan »

Yeah this is bound to happen again. But it's always going to be the case with "native" becoming less important.

I've been keeping my eye on what the Godot UI team has been up to and it looks like a pretty good starting point. But I think an evolution of UI input and interactivity is among us so fingers crossed we're going into a second (or 3rd depending on who you ask) UI renaissance... Or maybe were just looking at another "famous framework"

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