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Write code for the web

mrmr.io

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Re: Write code for the web

#81

Post by dgfitz »

ederamen wrote: post #26
zshrc wrote: post #2

Apple provides thousands of APIs to make developing on the platform easier, has created their own programming language that integrates nicely with the platform and has a fully integrated IDE that works with both above. Sure, buddy… They don’t care about you unless you develop for their platform. And who can blame? The above is a terribly expensive and timely investment.

They don't develop those APIs out of the goodness of their heart - it's a lock in strategy. They've made it practically impossible to write native cross platform code that runs on IOS, and they've everything they can (within political limits) to prevent web apps from being able to compete with native apps.

I’ve had success with Qt building an app that compiles on Android and iOS. I’m not in the app development business at $dayjob though.

Re: Write code for the web

#82

Post by mistrial9 »

aronhegedus wrote: post #64
throw156754228 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So tired of junk apps cluttering up my phone and tablet. Examples: There's a parking station near me that has an app, the library photocopier has an app. Could all be done on the web.

I also don't understand why a parking meter needs an app, it should have a QR code>web>stripe payment (or a text to pay), rather than 2 buggy apps on iPhone and Android, which require data to download

it is "surveillance capitalism" -- they want names and contact info for "their customers" .. this is a serious sickness in the modern times IMHO

Re: Write code for the web

#83

Post by ederamen »

host0 wrote: post #45
ahmedfromtunis wrote: post #15

Early on, I made the choice to not to invest in learning native mobile development. I focused all my limited time on the web, and I think that, for once, I made the right choice. Today, one can build amazing stuff for the browser. And, in my very humble opinion, the vast majority of apps should've been WebApps — except for maybe Uber, Google Drive, and games. I worked in the journalism business, and, in my country, t…

PWAs, especially those built with an offline-first approach, are so much closer to the native experience than those from half a decade ago. However what concerns me is Google's and Apple's incentives to help them get better to a point where they can rival native apps which could hit their bottom line.

I'm hoping the latest EU regulation enforcing alternate browser engines will make a dent in this.

...but when I see how petulantly defiant Apple's responses to other regulations which threaten their lock-in strategies have been, I'm not optimistic.

Re: Write code for the web

#84

Post by ahmedfromtunis »

host0 wrote: post #45
ahmedfromtunis wrote: post #15

Early on, I made the choice to not to invest in learning native mobile development. I focused all my limited time on the web, and I think that, for once, I made the right choice. Today, one can build amazing stuff for the browser. And, in my very humble opinion, the vast majority of apps should've been WebApps — except for maybe Uber, Google Drive, and games. I worked in the journalism business, and, in my country, t…

PWAs, especially those built with an offline-first approach, are so much closer to the native experience than those from half a decade ago. However what concerns me is Google's and Apple's incentives to help them get better to a point where they can rival native apps which could hit their bottom line.

> what concerns me is Google's and Apple's incentives to help them get better

I think that despite that, they did a decently good job. A few years ago, I created a voice-only social app: people can easily record and send voice memos.

I built it using fairly new tech at the time: the web audio api and native web components. (I refuse to touch react-style frameworks with a 20-foot pole.) It was 99% compatible with all major web browsers from the get-go, even with its fairly advanced "tech."

The only thing that wasn't cross-platform was the audio files themselves. I had to make a deep-dive into the world of encodings and codecs so that I can offer users audio files in the formats that work on their machines.

Obviously, there are areas where cross-platform-ity (??) is abysmal, but things will probably continue to evolve for the best ― hopefully.

And yes, PWAs with their offline capabilities are just awesome!

Re: Write code for the web

#85

Post by dickersnoodle »

Go ahead and write "code for the web" but be prepared to have to choose among a bunch of different JS libraries and CSS design systems depending on who the CTO is for your organization and who has their ear; writing bare-metal HTML/CSS and minimal Javascript won't get you far with the C-suite and you'll be pulling your hair out trying to get things to play nicely with each other (or wind up digging through five or ten layers to find a DOM element you need to augment).

Re: Write code for the web

#86

Post by mnvrth »

izietto wrote: post #58

> Google has a bug. I have dynamic light/dark mode, and if I search on Google at night, the first page shows up in light mode. [...] In the morning, my laptop automatically switches back to light mode. [...] The people like me who use alternate search engines like DDG have already moved on years ago. The rest of the (overwhelming) majority is stuck with Google. You don't move from Google for this bug because there's…

I didn't move from Google because of this bug. I'm just using that bug as a (pretty symptomatic) example.

Re: Write code for the web

#87

Post by dns_snek »

therealmarv wrote: post #57

I'm deeply worried that this new Apple Vision Pro will get successful and there is no real competitor or openness.

At the end of the day it's "just" a display, a few sensors and cameras strapped to your face, it's not exactly rocket science. Quest 2 gets you 80% of the way there for 1/10th the cost, and if VR/AR become widespread, there's probably going to be a few dozen companies that will compete on hardware.

VR currently suffers from a chicken & egg problem. There isn't a ton of investment in software & hardware because the user base is relatively small and vice versa. Once that changes, other hardware manufacturers will follow.

Re: Write code for the web

#88

Post by djbusby »

sspiff wrote: post #69

>The dependency goes Developer -> Apple and Apple -> Consumer, there is no reverse arrow from Apple to the developers. Is that really true? If Apple is abandoned by large developers (let's say of Adobe, Microsoft calibre), does it not harm their sales or revenue? It certainly isn't universally true. For young or new platforms, like the transition to ARM a few years ago, or the Vision Pro today, Apple needs developer…

Apple can make a new thing, while others (and the web) are playing catch-up. There are no open-standards for this VR road (yet (a-frame?)). These vendors will continue to "innovative" on their closed platforms.

Re: Write code for the web

#89

Post by smoldesu »

realusername wrote: post #22
blitz_skull wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol. Have you ever used their “IDE”? My guess is you haven’t based on the tone of your remark. Apple has been developer-hostile for years, and OP was just synthesizing their thoughts around this and TBH I found the conclusion to be fairly nuanced and apropos.

xcode is indeed the worst coding software I ever used, it looks like some kind of 90s software which got left rot since. The whole thing takes 13GB to download where resuming fails, has an undocumented config format which doesn't work with git properly and is more sluggish than an Electron app. The app upload process itself is so broken that even Apple had to release a third party tool to bypass it. I refuse to belie…

> The whole thing takes 13GB to download

You're one of the lucky ones, eh?

Re: Write code for the web

#90

Post by singron »

sspiff wrote: post #69

>The dependency goes Developer -> Apple and Apple -> Consumer, there is no reverse arrow from Apple to the developers. Is that really true? If Apple is abandoned by large developers (let's say of Adobe, Microsoft calibre), does it not harm their sales or revenue? It certainly isn't universally true. For young or new platforms, like the transition to ARM a few years ago, or the Vision Pro today, Apple needs developer…

If a developer pulls out of Apple, the developer loses half of their mobile market, and Apple loses a single customer. I guess if you got all developers to leave Apple, and then all iOS users switched to Android, then it could hurt Apple more than developers, but that's probably not happening.
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