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The State of Desktop Applications in Node.js

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Re: The State of Desktop Applications in Node.js

#112

Post by organsnyder »

mattkrea wrote: post #99
organsnyder wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that from a technology standpoint, the web development field is absolutely atrocious—at all levels. On the server side, broken languages control vast swaths of marketshare, and the client side has plenty of its own issues. From the user's perspective, however, there's been a ton of innovation, and they (usually) don't know/care that most applications are built on houses of cards.

Out of curiosity what broken languages in particular are you referring to? I'm also somewhat curious at to what language(s) you use.

I really should have made that singular—I was referring to PHP.

Historically, my language of choice for the server-side has been Java (I interned at an IBM lab that was involved in the creation of Eclipse, so I used it a lot at the start of my career). More recently, I've been dabbling in Ruby, and I'd also like to give Scala and Go a try.

Re: The State of Desktop Applications in Node.js

#113

Post by bpizzi »

pjmlp wrote: post #110
bpizzi wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm honestly curious: can you give some real examples of UI components that you customers blatantly refused when built in HTML/CSS/JS and praised when it was native? What was that? Sliders, exotic buttons, reactive graphs? What kind of applications are you selling?

We don't sell any application per se, we do enterprise consulting, everything goes. Customer comes with Powerpoint/Photoshop mockup of their idea, based on how native UIs work. Usually when it comes down to paying, there should be a 1:1 correspondence to their idea, across all requested devices. While native UIs allow for full control down to pixel level and hooks on control behaviors. Web requires a CSS/HTML/JavaScr…

Thanks for the context. It appears that it's more a matter of business model than an effective superiority of java over webdev for doing UI.

We, as developers working for companies that sells enterprise software "on the shelf", are not looking after pixel-perfect native UI and lowering customer friction during a project, as you seem to do (no offense, I can respect that).

What drives us is (i) innovation in solving enterprise problem, (ii) delivering a smooth, cutting-edge UX, (iii) offering the most affordable price while still being profitable.

If you consider those goals then a stack based on JS desktop application makes suddenly a lot of sens (lower development time, easy deployment, etc.)

Have you considered the possibility that, in some years, you could be the one that will be trying "to catch with the web"?

Re: The State of Desktop Applications in Node.js

#114

Post by pjmlp »

bpizzi wrote: post #113
pjmlp wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't sell any application per se, we do enterprise consulting, everything goes. Customer comes with Powerpoint/Photoshop mockup of their idea, based on how native UIs work. Usually when it comes down to paying, there should be a 1:1 correspondence to their idea, across all requested devices. While native UIs allow for full control down to pixel level and hooks on control behaviors. Web requires a CSS/HTML/JavaScr…

Thanks for the context. It appears that it's more a matter of business model than an effective superiority of java over webdev for doing UI. We, as developers working for companies that sells enterprise software "on the shelf", are not looking after pixel-perfect native UI and lowering customer friction during a project, as you seem to do (no offense, I can respect that). What drives us is (i) innovation in solving e…

I am coding since the web was born and was ridding the .COM and web 2.0 waves in web development. I am quite comfortable in web development, it doesn't mean I like it.

As I said everything goes. A native desktop .NET project today, a C++ embedded project in a few months and then a Web one.

So I never was, nor will be, a language X developer.

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