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Valdi – A cross-platform UI framework that delivers native performance

github.com

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Re: Valdi – A cross-platform UI framework that delivers native performance

#51

Post by littlecranky67 »

sebmellen wrote: post #29
DecoPerson wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did this and never looked back. It’s called a “WebView app” and you can get a really good experience on all platforms using them. Just: - don’t make any crazy decisions on your fundamental UI components, like breadcrumbs, select dropdowns, etc - add a few platform-specific specialisations to those same components, to make them feel a bit more familiar, such as button styling, or using a self-simplifying back-stack…

Works until you need complex native code for things like automatic image capture assisted by a bounding model.

There is no reason you can't do that via web. Image capture in a canvas gives you access to the raw image pixmap data.

Re: Valdi – A cross-platform UI framework that delivers native performance

#52

Post by littlecranky67 »

adastra22 wrote: post #35
samtheprogram wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why though? You aren’t interacting with it. What difference does it make?

How are you not interacting with it? It’s a UI library, no?

You are using the components, not interacting with that 3rd party code. Unless you are debugging/contributing back

Re: Valdi – A cross-platform UI framework that delivers native performance

#53

Post by blub »

bearjaws wrote: post #23

Working at a company that uses react-native I wish nothing more than for the end of app stores and differing platform languages. We're heavily considering just having a website next year with a mobile app using webview, and then native code for the native notifications, GPS and healthkit / health connect. I feel like AI is changing the equation, its nearly better to write your business UI 3 times one for each platfor…

It’s a bad idea to put the fox (front-end developers) to guard the henhouse (great, consistent user experiences).

Re: Valdi – A cross-platform UI framework that delivers native performance

#54

Post by ingenieros »

xmprt wrote: post #48
joenot443 wrote: post #4

I was at Snap during this project’s early days (Screenshop!) and spent a bit of time debugging some stuff directly with Simon. He’s a wonderful engineer and I’m thrilled to see this project out in the open. Congratulations Snap team! Well deserved.

I'm surprised Snap of all companies invested in a cross-platform UI framework given how simple their app seems in comparison to more complex ones out there. And more importantly, Snapchat seems like an app which could highly benefit from tight integration with native features (eg. camera, AR features, notifications, screenshot detection, etc.)

Perhaps for the same reason we got Airbnb of all companies to create Lottie. https://lottie.airbnb.tech/#/

These companies have super talented engineers and can afford to invest in skunkworks projects like these when they can’t find any suitable options in the market.

Re: Valdi – A cross-platform UI framework that delivers native performance

#56

Post by hn8726 »

serial_dev wrote: post #42
adastra22 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never once experienced a WebView app that I would say had “a really good experience.”

It’s because if a webview app experience is good, you don’t notice it, you only notice if it’s bad. A while ago saw a blog link on HN that explained how Apple uses it everywhere and we never notice it because they are done well. Of course I can’t find that link now, I summon the HN gods…

Maybe this https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2022/inspecting-web-views-in-ma... and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30648424?

On mobile the webview app experience is crap and it's immediately obvious that an app is not native. Simply nobody asks customers how they like it. The management assumes that as long as nobody complains and the users don't leave in droves, the experience must be impeccable.

Re: Valdi – A cross-platform UI framework that delivers native performance

#57

Post by ramraj07 »

xmprt wrote: post #48
joenot443 wrote: post #4

I was at Snap during this project’s early days (Screenshop!) and spent a bit of time debugging some stuff directly with Simon. He’s a wonderful engineer and I’m thrilled to see this project out in the open. Congratulations Snap team! Well deserved.

I'm surprised Snap of all companies invested in a cross-platform UI framework given how simple their app seems in comparison to more complex ones out there. And more importantly, Snapchat seems like an app which could highly benefit from tight integration with native features (eg. camera, AR features, notifications, screenshot detection, etc.)

As far as Im concerned, Snapchat is onw of the most complicated apps thats routinely used by hundreds of millions of people. You yourself listed all the features they have. And every one of them is pixel perfect, with insane amounts of time spent perfecting the user experience of every single ome of those features. In fact, the success of Snap could be attributed to how pixel perfect the app is.

And then you call it simple?

Re: Valdi – A cross-platform UI framework that delivers native performance

#58

Post by hn8726 »

serial_dev wrote: post #44
smokel wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this what you mean? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45250759 (In the context of "Apple has a private CSS property to add Liquid Glass effects to web content")

Yes, thank you!

> It stands to reason that Apple wouldn't have developed this feature [liquid glass css property] if they weren't using it. Where? We have no idea. But they must be using it somewhere. The fact that none of us have noticed exactly where suggests that we're interacting with webviews in our daily use of iOS without ever even realising it.

There's some jump from _a property exists_ to _it must be used_, but a massive one from _a property exists_ to _Apple uses it everywhere and we never notice it because they are done well_.

Re: Valdi – A cross-platform UI framework that delivers native performance

#59

Post by fakedang »

DecoPerson wrote: post #26
bearjaws wrote: post #23

Working at a company that uses react-native I wish nothing more than for the end of app stores and differing platform languages. We're heavily considering just having a website next year with a mobile app using webview, and then native code for the native notifications, GPS and healthkit / health connect. I feel like AI is changing the equation, its nearly better to write your business UI 3 times one for each platfor…

I did this and never looked back. It’s called a “WebView app” and you can get a really good experience on all platforms using them. Just: - don’t make any crazy decisions on your fundamental UI components, like breadcrumbs, select dropdowns, etc - add a few platform-specific specialisations to those same components, to make them feel a bit more familiar, such as button styling, or using a self-simplifying back-stack…

Perhaps you mean PWAs and not WebView apps? WebView apps suck big-time.

At least now I know who the offending devs are.

Re: Valdi – A cross-platform UI framework that delivers native performance

#60

Post by ramraj07 »

skeptrune wrote: post #49

Its hard to imagine not going fully native in the modern day with coding agents. Most of the code can just be clanked out.

If your entire company is all about making a single good app, I doubt having AI changes the architecture much. Its still an architectural decision of whether you're going to have a single codebase for your app and focus on a framework to transpile it. Either way you need actual teams of experts on iOS android etc, no single person is going to master all of them.
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