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Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview

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Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview

#211

Post by pault »

patr0nus wrote: post #2

Hi HN, DeskGap is another try to build an lightweight alternative to Electron. Compared to the existing attempts [0, 1], I choose not to go that far and bundle a real Node.js with it[2]. And to battle test the framework, I wrapped squoosh[3] into a desktop app[4] with DeskGap, and successfully submitted it to the app stores. [0] https://github.com/pojala/electrino [1] https://github.com/jscherer92/Quark [2] https://d…

It has barely started and still pre-alpha, but I would add revery[0]. I know the team working on it and they have a good history of finishing what they start.

[0] https://github.com/revery-ui/revery

Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview

#212

Post by sime2009 »

w0utert wrote: post #175
fxfan wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> snappy enough to run > Electron is a new brainer Not everyone on earth is a dev/gamer/video-editor. For regular people, electron is a cancer that needs to be nipped in the bud. Remember, 91% of the desktop on earth is Windows (meaning regular USD 300 machines). And of them I'd wager less than 10% fit have machines where electron is snappy (1.2K Thinkpads). What the earth needs is a better cross platform native GUI…

>> What the earth needs is a better cross platform native GUI framework. NOT electron. I always like to use VSCode as an example. It's a tool a use on a daily basis, and I like almost everything about it. It's also a poster-child for a good Electron application, maybe one of the best around. Add to that I completely understand why it was made using Electron, and why it might not have existed in this form (available,…

> Even though large performance-sensitive parts of it like the editor buffer data structures etc are (AFAIK) implemented natively

Actually they are not. The search in VSCode uses an external exe writing in Rust, but that is about it as far as custom native code goes.

Atom though did add some native code data structures.

Claims that VSCode is "inconsistent, it's full of random glitches" doesn't match my experience at all. It's solid. Maybe it could be faster, but I find its speed acceptable and regularly run it on a laptop with an Intel i3 CPU.

Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview

#213

Post by gameswithgo »

cetra3 wrote: post #36
gameswithgo wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://azul.rs/

I think Azul is definitely promising, but it's still alpha level, when I first tried to run it on OSX Mojave I got a nice black screen: https://github.com/maps4print/azul/issues/35 The next time I ran it, it worked on release mode, but panicked on debug mode. I've just tried again from master and it works, which is an improvement!

It was really pleasing to read about this steady progress!

Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview

#214

Post by tcrow »

w0utert wrote: post #175
fxfan wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> snappy enough to run > Electron is a new brainer Not everyone on earth is a dev/gamer/video-editor. For regular people, electron is a cancer that needs to be nipped in the bud. Remember, 91% of the desktop on earth is Windows (meaning regular USD 300 machines). And of them I'd wager less than 10% fit have machines where electron is snappy (1.2K Thinkpads). What the earth needs is a better cross platform native GUI…

>> What the earth needs is a better cross platform native GUI framework. NOT electron. I always like to use VSCode as an example. It's a tool a use on a daily basis, and I like almost everything about it. It's also a poster-child for a good Electron application, maybe one of the best around. Add to that I completely understand why it was made using Electron, and why it might not have existed in this form (available,…

I have been a big fan of VSCode for a while now even enthusiastically recommending it to my fellow colleagues but lately it has been VERY sluggish to the point where I am about ready to ditch it and go back to something like Sublime 3. I love the editor but the performance definitely leaves a lot to be desired.

Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview

#215

Post by ulisesrmzroche »

arghwhat wrote: post #196
markn951 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But it's not.snappy.enough. I was following you until this line... In general I agree about Electron though probably not to the same degree as you. But for me VSCode runs amazingly well; I think the only thing that tops it is Sublime (and I vastly prefer VSCode's interface and features). Not saying that what you said isn't your experience, but you should know it's not everyone's experience.

VSCode is worlds faster than Atom. However, relative to any native editor (Sublime Text, Gedit, GVim, Notepad++, Notepad itself, ...), VSCode ranges from anywhere between "sluggish" to "... is it frozen?". Now, I agree that how big the difference is, and how big a problem that becomes is subjective, but the presence of the difference itself is not. A good example being opening a new window. This is something I do sem…

What are the specs on your computer? How old is it? HDD?

Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview

#216

Post by pault »

Razengan wrote: post #149

As a user, I don't like Electron; "webapps" always feel clunky and alien compared to native apps and the rest of the OS. As a developer, I can appreciate Electron's utility in targeting multiple platforms, but one has to wonder: Why isn't there a good, open, cross-platform UI library already, that compiles to the native UI of each OS? Has there even been an initiative to make one? You'd think the global developer com…

Native UI frameworks don't have a 1:1 match on features and UI components, and a cross-platform library would have to compromise on the lowest common denominator or use so many conditionals that you would be maintaining three different codebases anyway.

Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview

#217

Post by fauigerzigerk »

fedesilva wrote: post #172
rkangel wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuine question - why do people install the Slack App? I haven't in ages, I just use the web-app and am very happy.

At least for me, webapps are just 1 in a thousand tabs open in 500 browser windows (ok, I exaggerate a bit). For an app with it's own window I can just hit a shortcut and said app gets focus. Disclaimer, not an Elektron fan.

Same for me. I'm so surprised that browser makers still haven't solved this particular problem in spite of all browsers now being multi process.

Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview

#218

Post by jcelerier »

O_H_E wrote: post #187
jcelerier wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

non-programmer users don't complain because they don't know how bad they are fucked. A few weeks ago my non-technical neighbours told me that their computer was "a bit slow" and if I could "install a new antivirus". Here's what "a bit slow" meant : - windows took 7 minutes to boot - IE took more than a minute to open And of course it wasn't always like that, but the proverbial frog was boiled long enough that it took…

Horror. 4 antivirus programs in 2G RAM That makes me think of what school and uni digital illiteracy should look like.

given that the aforementioned neighbors are more than 60 years old I don't think you can really blame school and university

Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview

#219

Post by Vogtinator »

jgillich wrote: post #162
patr0nus wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I shared your concern before I started the project, and talked about this in the readme's FAQ[0]. [0] https://deskgap.com/#faq

The majority of Linux users use a GTK desktop, IMO WebkitGTK would be preferable.

No - that's built on webkit, which is apparently becoming the next IE.

Re: Show HN: DeskGap – Like Electron, but uses the system webview

#220

Post by c-smile »

Sciter (https://sciter.com) then, as it is not like Electron - it is not using any web view at all.

But it does use HTML/CSS in the same way as WPF uses XAML for UI definitions.

Sciter allows to use best parts of two worlds: flexibility of HTML/CSS/script for UI definitions and richness, power and compactness of native code as Sciter is designed to be embeddable from the very beginning.

In what UI engine you can create your own HTML element with native C++ (Rust, Go, etc) controller when you need to?

And on all Windows versions starting from XP, Mac OS from 10.7, all Linuxes with GTK3 including Raspberry Pi...

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