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I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok

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Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok

#441

Post by direwolf20 »

bryankaplan wrote: post #284
moring wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By that logic, operating system developers struggle to understand that putting two files with the same name into the same folder(1) is very much possible in the physical world. (1) or referencing them from the same directory, which was the earlier metaphor.

Hardly. That would be analogous to two people having the same name _and_ the same spacetime coordinates; they would indeed be the same person.

But why are filenames equated with spacetime coordinates? That doesn't make any sense - reflect on why you leaped to that analogy. The spacetime coordinates are the disk ID and sector number. We've been using operating systems that work a certain way for so long that we think filenames are like spacetime coordinates.

Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok

#442

Post by Groxx »

sebastiennight wrote: post #404
t-3 wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In addition to more space, having only one foreground application really reduces distractions and visual clutter. Also, for some reason I am comfortable using larger fonts on phones and tablets, which makes doing lots of reading easier than on my laptop.

> reduces distractions Have you looked over the shoulder of somebody trying to "do" something on their phone recently? If so you might have noticed the constant pings and notifications from dating apps, news sites, random games and cool-apps-that-you've-long-forgotten-but-still-have-location-and-background-services-turned-on.

I mean, some, sure. but it's a choice, and not all choose to do that. and I've watched quite a few (of all ages) escape it when they realize how much it's harming their ability to do what they need to do.

Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok

#443

Post by AlBugdy »

bobthepanda wrote: post #421
AlBugdy wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Computers screens have gotten wider and wider, and UIs bigger and bigger Sadly, most websites forcefully limit the width of the text. It's like they pretend our monitors are oriented to be tall rather than wide. Even HN has unnecessarily big margins. So unless I try to cram another window in my FHD monitor, I have ~50% or more completely wasted space. Margins should be 2-3 pixels wide, not 20-30% of the screen.

There are actual user studies to show that wider text is harder to read. https://baymard.com/blog/line-length-readability The major difference is that in the era of print, it was pretty logical where a multicolumn wide layout could go like on a newspaper, but in an desktop experience the browser markup is theoretically endless.

I can resize my window easily if I wanted shorter text. Or used ctrl-shift-m on Firefox. But I can't easily make the text longer without userscripts or addons.

> actual user studies to show that wider text is harder to read

That may apply to most people, but not to everyone.

Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok

#444

Post by Markoff »

Boxxed wrote: post #345
sdfjkhdfjkdhs wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> Or look at the dogged adherence to Windows even to this day after decades of Microsoft abuse Or the people who absolutely refuse to give up Chrome, despite the whole adblock situation. "But I don't like the way Firefox tabs look!"

what's wrong with Cromite or Ultimatum on Android or Vivaldi on desktop? FF is both on desktop and mobile inferior product with devs hating their own users

Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok

#445

Post by armadyl »

leptons wrote: post #370
palata wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Web browser is a sandbox by default. So I take this is a security concern. How do you feel about the fact that when you open a webapp in your browser, you re-download that app code every time? That the server can send you a backdoor every single time, made just for you, and nobody else will ever know? And that you can't check the "hash" of the webapp, like you can with an app? On the other hand, an app is sandboxed…

>That the server can send you a backdoor every single time, made just for you, and nobody else will ever know? There is no "backdoor" when the browser is sandboxed. "backdoor" is a specific thing, I think you need to read up on it before you keep using it incorrectly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backdoor_(computing) >On the other hand, an app is sandboxed, too (on mobile OSes like Android and iOS). When you downloa…

AlBugdy and the person you are replying to are literally right re: server delivered backdoors. Using E2EE applications in a browser moves the trust back from the client to the server.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47664103

> That isn't how any of this works. The main value proposition of Signal is that we do trust its end-to-end encryption. Protonmail sending a "web page" that "leaks your key"? WTF?

Yes and it's that you also trust the client, with a server that dynamically delivers code you have no way of knowing fully what payload it's sending you. An example of this vulnerability was discussed when it was pointed out that 1P, Bitwarden and others were susceptible to server side backdoors if used from the web in that research study that came out last month that was posted here.

> And no, mobile apps are not really sandboxed, they have full access to your mobile device once you install it and give it access - and let's be real, most people are just going to blindly click "allow" for anything the app requests after installing an app.

This is genuinely just not true, even if you click allow for all permissions on Android and iOS. An application on a non-rooted device doesn't have "full access."

Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok

#446

Post by palata »

zadikian wrote: post #379
palata wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Web browser is a sandbox by default. So I take this is a security concern. How do you feel about the fact that when you open a webapp in your browser, you re-download that app code every time? That the server can send you a backdoor every single time, made just for you, and nobody else will ever know? And that you can't check the "hash" of the webapp, like you can with an app? On the other hand, an app is sandboxed…

Apps can download code too, and often do

Well the idea is that the client should be open source, and audited.

If you run a proprietary app, you have to blindly trust it (just like if you access a webapp).

In terms of security, the best is an open source app, IMO.

Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok

#447

Post by leros »

senordevnyc wrote: post #419
leros wrote: post #355

I have an app that is literally just a wrapper around the website. The mobile website and the mobile app are the exact same experience. Before I built the app, people were constantly asking me to build a mobile app. Yes, I had a PWA but people still wanted an app. I thought it was kind of silly but I eventually built that wrapper app. It immediately got thousands of downloads, users upgrading to paid plans increased…

Ugh, I run a B2B SaaS app that's mobile friendly, but people keep asking for an app (and I really do need push notifications, I'm spending thousands per month on text messages right now), but I've been putting it off. Did the App Stores have issues with you publishing just a simple RN wrapper app?

No issues at all. I have two tabs in the RN app. One tab is basically the entire app, which is just an embedded web view. The other tab is a basic account tab (sign in, log out, delete account, cancel plan). I also have native auth and native payments.

I'm not 100% sure yet, but I might regret using React-Native over Capacitor. I have to bridge things like auth and payments between the web view and the native app. For example, the web app has a flow where you need to login, so it opens the login modal. If you're inside the mobile app, instead of doing that, it sends a message up to the native app to open the native app's login modal. Then once login is complete, the native app sends a message into the webview with the auth token. Similar thing for payments. That all works great, but occasionally I want to make a breaking change. Since it takes many weeks to get an update rolled out everyone, I have to keep the webapp backwards compatible for a long time. That slows down iterating on stuff like AB testing checkout flows. I don't think I'd have to worry about this if I was using Capacitor because the native functionality would be mostly driven from the webapp code.

Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok

#448

Post by Groxx »

AlBugdy wrote: post #443
bobthepanda wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are actual user studies to show that wider text is harder to read. https://baymard.com/blog/line-length-readability The major difference is that in the era of print, it was pretty logical where a multicolumn wide layout could go like on a newspaper, but in an desktop experience the browser markup is theoretically endless.

I can resize my window easily if I wanted shorter text. Or used ctrl-shift-m on Firefox. But I can't easily make the text longer without userscripts or addons. > actual user studies to show that wider text is harder to read That may apply to most people, but not to everyone.

afaict it applies to literally everyone. there's a variable "sweet spot" of course, but once you get out to "extremely wide" it's reliably worse for everyone, and there are LOADS of computer monitors that qualify for that label.

margins to control the width of large blocks of text have a ton of research in their favor, it's not just "more whitespace = more gooder" UI design madness. there's some of that of course, but there's a sane core underneath it all.

Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok

#450

Post by t-3 »

encom wrote: post #410
t-3 wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In addition to more space, having only one foreground application really reduces distractions and visual clutter. Also, for some reason I am comfortable using larger fonts on phones and tablets, which makes doing lots of reading easier than on my laptop.

This is the first time I've heard someone say a smartphone reduces distractions. As a millennial boomer, I prefer my triple monitor setup and mechanical keyboard, not to mention network- and client-level content blockers, whenever I have to input more than a sentence. I was at a conference last week, and I took notes in a fullscreened GNU Nano. Distractions, ADHD, etc. Did get some odd looks, but I couldn't imagine t…

I don't have any social apps or games on my phone. Other than the web browser there's nothing to distract me. I find it so easy to get caught up in checking the news or email or the episode of that show I was watching on my laptop, but I don't do any of those things habitually on my phone or tablet or reader so that's my "distraction free" device.

That's only for reading though! For taking notes I go with a real keyboard or pencil and paper whenever I have the choice.

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