This is where QT/JUCE can help. Although you are limited to c++.
There are bindings for Go (https://github.com/mappu/miqt) and Zig (https://github.com/rcalixte/libqt6zig) but not for Rust. We need bindings like these for Rust.
Native all the way, until you need text
221–230 of 328 posts
Re: Native all the way, until you need text
#222> There is no real alternative.
Not sure if my Sciter qualifies as a native solution.
Check this chat alike virtual list with MD items: https://sciter.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/virtual-list-m...
Yes, MD gets translated to DOM tree. But virtual list implementation in Sciter is a native thing. Load whole chat is not an option usually. Yes, JS is used in process but mostly as a configuration option: take output of one native function -> transform it -> pass as an input to other native function.
Essentially there is no so significant difference with any other SwiftUI/TextKit solution. It is just a difference in terms - SwiftUI uses tree of Views that is conceptually the same as DOM tree in terms of Sciter.
Re: Native all the way, until you need text
#223This explains why so many AI chat tools suck at text selection on MacOS / iOS. They got the streaming and markdown part right … flicker free, but at the cost of text selection.
Just AI tools? Most "modern" chat apps suck at text selection because they're in Electron. I can't select parts of whatsapp messages for example.
Re: Native all the way, until you need text
#224I know nothing about any of these APIs, but the claim of the article seems weird. If naitive APIs are insufficient, or slow, or unsuitable, and implementing your own is too hard, then how does Electron even do what it does? One would assume that Electron has its own library to accomplish the task, in which case this code could either be separated, or re-created once and for all, into its own re-usable library.
You can just implement Prosemirror from one of the greatest web teams on the planet and get pretty much every text editing nicety for free - markdown rendering, document version history, blocks, tables. If you choose to deal with prosemirror-collab-cmmit, yjs, or automerge you also get eventually consistent multiplayer. All the "I wish this was a native app" people don't understand the cathedrals that have been built on the web.
Re: Native all the way, until you need text
#225Re: Native all the way, until you need text
#226I’ve been there too. Finally opted for Flutter (need cross-platform mobile and desktop). Apple needs to put a big effort into the development tools, or they will face the actual Windows situation: several GUI toolkits, none of them as mature as the ones they are designed to replace. (Try to beat Windows Forms Professional Control Libraries and the boost in development performance you get. You can’t because the tool makers need a clear path and commitment in order to justify developing a new version of the full control libraries. You need cross-platform; forget the native tools. That’s the same scenario Apple is facing right now.)
Re: Native all the way, until you need text
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you can predict the future so accurately, why aren't you the richest man on the planet?
Because predicting the future roughly as well as everyone else doesn't make you rich. Predicting a surge in RAM supply after a surge in RAM demand and a huge increase in RAM margins is economics 101.
We are still bound by natural resources, as much as economics 101 loves to ignore this simple fact.
Re: Native all the way, until you need text
#228> But I still cannot make a simple thing work properly: a chat with Markdown & the ability to select a whole message. Sorry, sounds like bullsh_t. One can leverage mature markdown renderers in SwiftUI. See https://github.com/gonzalezreal/swift-markdown-ui and its next gen replacement https://github.com/gonzalezreal/textual . Used these myself and had no issues. And I am a moron who doesn't like Swift or SwiftUI - pre…
> > But I still cannot make a simple thing work properly: a chat with Markdown & the ability to select a whole message.
> Sorry, sounds like bullsh_t.
No... As a user, one thing I notice is that older, non-HTML-based apps don't seem to follow "the rules." Text that I should be able to select and push "control/option C" just isn't selectable, or copy doesn't work.
Then I realized that browsers (and everything based on them) introduced some new paradigms to UI that native UI frameworks just haven't kept up with.
(And I say this as someone who prefers native apps over web-based apps.)
Re: Native all the way, until you need text
#229Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Browser rendering engines are pretty mature at this point, with significant GPU acceleration, and over a decade stress-testing by bloated web apps. Even so, there is a stark difference, even more so on low-powered devices, between native apps and even the lightest of browser apps. I'm traditionally a web developer, but started developing native cross-platform applications the last 6-12 months, and the performance g…
My experience too, and that's not even touching the disproportionately high RAM usage of frameworks like Electron. Sure, "unused RAM is wasted RAM", until the system starts swapping heavily because of the high RAM usage. It doesn't even have to be old devices, there are still laptops being sold with 8GB of RAM in 2026.
This is so true. It even happens to me in my 16GB work laptop when I have to use multiple Electron apps at work. My personal 8GB Air is way faster.
On the other hand, WebViews can be really fast without the baggage of Electron and Javascript frameworks/libraries.
Re: Native all the way, until you need text
#230I remember being a junior engineer in 2015, and being asked to render a clickable link within a paragraph in an iOS app. Swift had just been released so we were still entirely on the ObjC/UIKit stack. It was an absolute nightmare. I _barely_ managed to make it work. I haven't really touched iOS since about 2016, so I assumed the new SwiftUI stuff would have this stuff built in. Obviously. Kind of insane that it wasn'…
Qt made this pretty easy 10 years ago
Why pay a license fee when you can make a bloated and slow electron app instead?