Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

An unofficial WWDC app for OS X

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 44 posts

Re: An unofficial WWDC app for OS X

#31

Post by mwfunk »

jason_slack wrote: post #10
Longhanks wrote: post #6

So refreshing to see a nice desktop app built without Electron. A well defined interface, designed specifically for the platform the author targeted. Major props to the author!

I am not understanding what all the hype is about "Electron". What does it bring to the table that I can't code myself? So many apps are based upon Electron.

I was about to say, "not that many apps, all I can think of is Atom and VS Code", but I was surprised by the size of this list: http://electron.atom.io/apps/

I've never used it, but it sounds potentially great for people who do a lot of web development. It's a frictionless way for them to share code and other assets between native(isher) desktop apps and web projects. For web developers who don't do desktop development at all, it's also a relatively frictionless way to ship a desktop app.

If you don't need a cross-platform UI toolkit, and/or don't need to (or want to) use web technologies in a desktop app, it wouldn't be a net positive. Obviously there are downsides in terms of performance and not having a native UI. The upsides depend on your requirements, which range from 0 to >= the downsides.

Re: An unofficial WWDC app for OS X

#33

Post by NEDM64 »

Longhanks wrote: post #6

So refreshing to see a nice desktop app built without Electron. A well defined interface, designed specifically for the platform the author targeted. Major props to the author!

Now, if only Apple or Microsoft added the opportunity to compile and run Cocoa or WPF Apps on competitor platforms, that would be great.

Apple could do this very well, it makes sense from a business perspective, and from a technical perspective, it shouldn't be hard.

Re: An unofficial WWDC app for OS X

#34

Post by santaclaus »

chc wrote: post #26
nicky0 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get a good book on OS X development in ObjC or Swift and download Xcode. Couple of weeks hacking on a toy project and away you go.

Now try to share that program with your Windows- or Linux-using friends. That sort of gets to how I feel about Electron apps. If you don't like Electron apps, then just pretend any app made with it isn't available for your platform, as would likely be the case if they were not using a cross-platform library.

> Now try to share that program with your Windows- or Linux-using friends.

There is always the Qt5 option, although I'd be curious to see how much overhead (latency, battery consumption, etc) Qt brings over a program built directly in Cocoa.

Re: An unofficial WWDC app for OS X

#35

Post by RandallBrown »

NEDM64 wrote: post #33
Longhanks wrote: post #6

So refreshing to see a nice desktop app built without Electron. A well defined interface, designed specifically for the platform the author targeted. Major props to the author!

Now, if only Apple or Microsoft added the opportunity to compile and run Cocoa or WPF Apps on competitor platforms, that would be great. Apple could do this very well, it makes sense from a business perspective, and from a technical perspective, it shouldn't be hard.

Microsoft lets you build your iOS apps for Windows.

https://github.com/Microsoft/WinObjC

Re: An unofficial WWDC app for OS X

#36

Post by voltagex_ »

bluetidepro wrote: post #9
Longhanks wrote: post #6

So refreshing to see a nice desktop app built without Electron. A well defined interface, designed specifically for the platform the author targeted. Major props to the author!

Curious, what do you have against Electron built apps? I feel like the last few apps I've used that were built on Electron actually worked quite nicely. Wondering what you found bad with them...

What's the minimum file size for an Electron app?

Re: An unofficial WWDC app for OS X

#37

Post by voltagex_ »

archagon wrote: post #19
SkyMarshal wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Click the link that says "Psst, want me to love you? Then check this out "

I mean in a general sense. I'd pay for all sorts of things I currently get for free — writing, art, software, videos — if it was as easy as clicking a button. Getting out my wallet, entering a credit card number, and going through the payment steps is too much work for a quarter.

This is what http://flattr.com was meant to solve. Gratipay and Patreon also work but I'm allergic to recurring billing.

Re: An unofficial WWDC app for OS X

#38

Post by jventura »

voltagex_ wrote: post #36
bluetidepro wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious, what do you have against Electron built apps? I feel like the last few apps I've used that were built on Electron actually worked quite nicely. Wondering what you found bad with them...

What's the minimum file size for an Electron app?

Some 120 MB uncompressed, around 40 MB compressed..

Re: An unofficial WWDC app for OS X

#39

Post by voltagex_ »

jventura wrote: post #38
voltagex_ wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the minimum file size for an Electron app?

Some 120 MB uncompressed, around 40 MB compressed..

I know people in Australia who are paying by the gigabyte still - this trend of larger and larger apps is not going to end well for us.

I'd really like a shared library version of Electron but it's never going to happen.

Re: An unofficial WWDC app for OS X

#40

Post by nailer »

Longhanks wrote: post #14
bluetidepro wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious, what do you have against Electron built apps? I feel like the last few apps I've used that were built on Electron actually worked quite nicely. Wondering what you found bad with them...

Their UI feels alien on every platform. The startup time, memory consumption and general performance is subpar to native applications. Generally, I feel like developers who make software for platforms individually care more for user experience. Like this app, for example, it feels polished, uses the native OS X UI elements and performs super fast (much due to Swift in its nature being faster than JavaScript). I certa…

It's HTML5 rather than Electron, but instagram is pretty popular on the iPhone and is known for having a high quality UX.
Post reply on HN