What did we do wrong when simple chat app requires hundrets of megabytes of memory, or even gigabytes! Sure, its not just plain text but images and videos, but still...
Meta replaces WhatsApp for Windows with web wrapper
261–270 of 402 posts
Re: Meta replaces WhatsApp for Windows with web wrapper
#262The problem is Whatsapp is now being used more and more in a professional context, even in Europe, and it's just not a pro software by any means. Searching for old messages is a pain, the web version is slow, there is now optimized overview or folders, etc... And now it seems that there is not even a benefit to installing the native vbersion, they will probably do the same for Mac also now.
I'm not defending WhatsApp by any means, but “professional” chat apps are equally bad — MS Teams, Slack etc.
I long for a simple, stable chat app that doesn't change every other day. Maybe we should all go back to IRC.
Re: Meta replaces WhatsApp for Windows with web wrapper
#263I do want to point out, as someone who uses the WhatsApp app (to me, it’s slightly more convenient than the web version) that the old native windows app was /awful/. It looked native enough, but it just didn’t work. For as long as I remember it would randomly stop accepting input into the text field and I’d have to restart the app, and this was insanely frequent. Typing dead keys was also randomly broken with accents…
Sounds like the all powerful mighty Meta didn't have capable engineering working on that app. No idea how that could happen, given that they only hire top talent ...
Re: Meta replaces WhatsApp for Windows with web wrapper
#264This app culture is getting out of hand, on all platforms. Why can't people offer and use web browser directly? Isn't that sexy enough?
You can use WhatsApp on a browser. If you have Chromium installed, you can even "install" WhatsApp as a PWA.
Safari and Firefox as well. In any case, they are all resource hogs.
Re: Meta replaces WhatsApp for Windows with web wrapper
#265Earlier quoted context omitted.
While the old APIs keep working, Microsoft does like to come up with completely new APIs every five years or so. If you want to do basic UI on Windows today, you can use: - Win32 UI - MFC - .NET WinForms - WinFX - .NET WPF - WinRT - UWP And I'm sure there are many others that I'm forgetting.
Adding new APIs does not hinder your ability to use the old APIs you're familiar with. I think apps like Notepad++ and Sumatra PDF are still written in Win32.
Of course it does, those APIs don't work well together. It's a pain in the ass to use the features only available in the new APIs on old applications. Microsoft has put some effort into making it work but it's still hugely hit and miss. You can mix WPF and WinUI2, but not WinUI3.
Re: Meta replaces WhatsApp for Windows with web wrapper
#266Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am baffled by this. I wrote a cross-platform GUI for an audio signal processor in wxWidgets that rendered all of its own widgets (own Draw calls, for faders, graphic EQ, compressors, drag/drop linking of nodes for a layout, knobs, meters/scopes) and incorporated Horde3D as a 3D rendering of the arena. It ran on macOS and Windows. Another chap handled the network control code that included joining multicast groups t…
If they want fungible engineers, yes. They don’t want to pay extra for an expert in wxWidgets and Horde3D. They don’t want to wait while that expert’s replacement comes up to speed on Horde3D. They don’t even want to wait for any existing engineers to learn these two technologies. They know web, they can manage web - web is “less risky.”
> They don’t want to pay extra for an expert in wxWidgets and Horde3D.
In my experience, in a large software company [0] it's very common for new folks on a "team" to have to spend one or (often) more months learning both the software they're now working on and the various libraries used in its construction.
It's very nice if you can find an expert in everything you've used on a software project, but that's not going to happen often. [1] And -IMO- if whoever you've hired can't generally come up to speed on WxWidgets in a couple of weeks while also becoming familiar with the rest of the project they're now responsible for, they're not someone you want working on your project.
[0] Which is the sort of company we're talking about right now.
[1] In part because companies generally don't want to pay enough to hire such people.
Re: Meta replaces WhatsApp for Windows with web wrapper
#267As a Linux user, I am glad to see Whatshapp Web App isn't going away anytime so.
Re: Meta replaces WhatsApp for Windows with web wrapper
#268The Pidgin plugin for WhatsApp uses very little ram, if people are looking for low-ram alternatives. Although doesn't support calling.
(disclaimer, I help out a little with that plugin, amongst others for Pidgin-
Re: Meta replaces WhatsApp for Windows with web wrapper
#269As the person who designed and fought for this app, I am a bit sad about the change. The native app was by no means perfect, but it felt like a real productivity tool that was trying to be respectful of it's environment. I've come to the conclusion that native desktop apps are just not viable from large companies, even if there is headcount. The problem is coordination cost. If you want to launch new features and exp…
I am baffled by this. I wrote a cross-platform GUI for an audio signal processor in wxWidgets that rendered all of its own widgets (own Draw calls, for faders, graphic EQ, compressors, drag/drop linking of nodes for a layout, knobs, meters/scopes) and incorporated Horde3D as a 3D rendering of the arena. It ran on macOS and Windows. Another chap handled the network control code that included joining multicast groups t…
I don't think that's what he's saying precisely.
I think what he is saying that native platform apps get delegated to different teams and coordinating among those teams becomes an additional cost. You don't want each team going off and doing their own thing.
Your 'answer' is "use a cross-platform GUI toolkit" but that has its own challenges. Not least that you typically build a native app because it delivers a native experience that users expect.
In general (and I accept there may be counter-examples) cross-platform tools fail to do this.
Re: Meta replaces WhatsApp for Windows with web wrapper
#270Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, why not something else? There are a lot of better alternatives. Matrix (Element) although does the search functionality work yet? It sucked ass. I wonder if it works now. Even Telegram is better, then there is Signal, Briar, and XMPP, too. They are fully featured ones. If you are fine with text only, then Ricochet Refresh is the best candidate as far as privacy goes.
I can report that Matrix/Element is still absolutely terrible, and not just the search.
Have you tried WhatsApp? There are weird non moderated groups of children, organised crime and much more. It's a fucking weird and dangerous place to be around IMO.