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ElectronCGI – A Solution to Cross-Platform GUIs for .NET Core

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Re: ElectronCGI – A Solution to Cross-Platform GUIs for .NET Core

#71

Post by jacobush »

jcelerier wrote: post #70
jacobush wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. Now imagine it didn't. What then?

you ask them for the LGPL package, they send it to you, you compile ? The onus is on the person making the app that links against the LGPL library to provide you with the build instruction. At worse they would give you their main static library and Qt LGPL source code and you just have to relink them and open Xcode to upload it to your iDevice ? Here is for instance the source code for the telegram app for iOS which…

I am not talking primarily about open source projects, but about closed source projects with LGPL components on app stores. You’d need the proprietary main object from them. Also, requiring that your users have an Apple dev account before they can execute their rights is problematic at best. I am not alone in rejecting Qt on these grounds, in favour of some MIT or similarly licensed alternative.

Re: ElectronCGI – A Solution to Cross-Platform GUIs for .NET Core

#72

Post by PretzelFisch »

orange8 wrote: post #48
tabtab wrote: post #43

What's really needed is a standard GUI markup language (SGML) and probably a dedicated browser, or at least a browser pluggin. Emulating desktop-like GUI's using JavaScript and DOM has proven clunky and unreliable, largely because HTML browser makers do what they want when they want. A dedicated GUI browser wouldn't break GUI's because doing GUI's is its sole purpose. HTML browser makers usually don't care if they br…

> What's really needed is a standard GUI markup language (SGML) What's wrong with HTML? Isn't it already everywhere, including in all browsers? > HTML browser makers usually don't care if they break a particular JavaScript library by adding or tweaking features. HTML and JS are two different languages. One is a markup language, the other a scripting language. If changes to the markup language break a library in the s…

I would just say HTML is a document markup, not an application ui. And you need css to make a none-document look nice.

Re: ElectronCGI – A Solution to Cross-Platform GUIs for .NET Core

#73

Post by bobblywobbles »

rafaelvasco wrote: post #21
Hawxy wrote: post #3

Steve Sanderson (creator of Blazor) is working on something similar that doesn't use Electron: https://blog.stevensanderson.com/2019/11/01/exploring-lighte... From Blazor roadmaps a few months ago, I think the idea is that Blazor will become the recommended .NET Core cross-platform UI choice sometime after .NET 5.

That is a much better way to go on imo. No Electron and no Node involved. A tiny crossplatform webview + .net core is much preferable for me.

Check out this page: https://blog.stevensanderson.com/2019/11/01/exploring-lighte...

Re: ElectronCGI – A Solution to Cross-Platform GUIs for .NET Core

#74

Post by de_watcher »

jacobush wrote: post #29
de_watcher wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can relink. The object files for relinking aren't required to go through App Store. Static/dynamic linking isn't a problem.

Interesting. If I install this [0] app, how can I relink it against my patched QT5? 0: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/qt-5-showcases-by-v-play-apps/...

Normally you ask them for the object files, but those specific guys are middleware developers so they provide QtCreator configured to build with their library (to get a different Qt version, select a different Qt Kit in QtCreator settings).

Additionally, the nature of the library is that it's probably a plugin that's loaded by a regular Qt application, as a result you've got their classes available in the QML scripts. It isn't very intrusive on the practical level.

They don't say what license they use though.

Re: ElectronCGI – A Solution to Cross-Platform GUIs for .NET Core

#75

Post by pjmlp »

Hawxy wrote: post #3

Steve Sanderson (creator of Blazor) is working on something similar that doesn't use Electron: https://blog.stevensanderson.com/2019/11/01/exploring-lighte... From Blazor roadmaps a few months ago, I think the idea is that Blazor will become the recommended .NET Core cross-platform UI choice sometime after .NET 5.

I hope that they end up improving Xamarin instead.

Re: ElectronCGI – A Solution to Cross-Platform GUIs for .NET Core

#76

Post by pjmlp »

headmelted wrote: post #37
Hawxy wrote: post #3

Steve Sanderson (creator of Blazor) is working on something similar that doesn't use Electron: https://blog.stevensanderson.com/2019/11/01/exploring-lighte... From Blazor roadmaps a few months ago, I think the idea is that Blazor will become the recommended .NET Core cross-platform UI choice sometime after .NET 5.

I've sort of mixed feelings about this. Instinctively this does seem better than Electron as a solution. It's much leaner, isn't subject to the browser sandbox, and should be consistent across platforms - so it ticks the same boxes in a leaner package. I just don't think Electron is a solution we should try to emulate elsewhere. Most Electron apps that I've seen don't really need access to the underlying platform, an…

PWAs are also what we decided to invest on for mobile Web.

And I get a feeling that WebAssembly + WebGL/WebGPU will have a shinny future, unless the browser authors change course.

Re: ElectronCGI – A Solution to Cross-Platform GUIs for .NET Core

#77

Post by pjmlp »

injidup wrote: post #4

How about Avalonia. https://avaloniaui.net/ The assertion that there are no .NET core GUI frameworks and that resorting to the abomination that is electron is the solution is just false. Or go full functional with an Elmish architecture using F#, .net core and Avalonia.

F# is a niche language among .NET developers, because adopting it closes the doors to lots of enterprise tooling (including Visual Studio designers), that only consider VB.NET and C#

Re: ElectronCGI – A Solution to Cross-Platform GUIs for .NET Core

#78

Post by pjmlp »

tabtab wrote: post #43

What's really needed is a standard GUI markup language (SGML) and probably a dedicated browser, or at least a browser pluggin. Emulating desktop-like GUI's using JavaScript and DOM has proven clunky and unreliable, largely because HTML browser makers do what they want when they want. A dedicated GUI browser wouldn't break GUI's because doing GUI's is its sole purpose. HTML browser makers usually don't care if they br…

That is what XHTML was supposed to become, but then people decided to misuse HTML and make it into HTML 5.

So now appreciate what HTML has turned into.

Re: ElectronCGI – A Solution to Cross-Platform GUIs for .NET Core

#79

Post by pjmlp »

azhenley wrote: post #45
tabtab wrote: post #43

What's really needed is a standard GUI markup language (SGML) and probably a dedicated browser, or at least a browser pluggin. Emulating desktop-like GUI's using JavaScript and DOM has proven clunky and unreliable, largely because HTML browser makers do what they want when they want. A dedicated GUI browser wouldn't break GUI's because doing GUI's is its sole purpose. HTML browser makers usually don't care if they br…

I like your idea and Microsoft probably hoped for XAML to become that standard.

XAML kind of follows (in spirit) the ideas behind XHTML, and its related standards.

https://www.w3.org/standards/xml/components

Re: ElectronCGI – A Solution to Cross-Platform GUIs for .NET Core

#80

Post by jcelerier »

jacobush wrote: post #71
jcelerier wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you ask them for the LGPL package, they send it to you, you compile ? The onus is on the person making the app that links against the LGPL library to provide you with the build instruction. At worse they would give you their main static library and Qt LGPL source code and you just have to relink them and open Xcode to upload it to your iDevice ? Here is for instance the source code for the telegram app for iOS which…

I am not talking primarily about open source projects, but about closed source projects with LGPL components on app stores. You’d need the proprietary main object from them. Also, requiring that your users have an Apple dev account before they can execute their rights is problematic at best. I am not alone in rejecting Qt on these grounds, in favour of some MIT or similarly licensed alternative.

> I am not talking primarily about open source projects, but about closed source projects with LGPL components on app stores. You’d need the proprietary main object from them.

yes, and as I said if they are not providing them to you they are breaking the LGPL plain and simple. If they break their contract you're in undefined-behaviour land anyways :-)

> Also, requiring that your users have an Apple dev account before they can execute their rights is problematic at best. I am not alone in rejecting Qt on these grounds, in favour of some MIT or similarly licensed alternative.

You don't need a dev account to upload something to your phone since Xcode 7 or 8. Only to put it on the appstore. Prior to that, sure, it was hard to comply with the LGPL.

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