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Ask HN: Is a React Native like approach to desktop apps better than Electron?
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Re: Ask HN: Is a React Native like approach to desktop apps better than Electron?
#2React is great, but I really like the idea of multi-process desktop apps, where the rendering happens in one process and one or more controlling processes pipe events to and from it. That way you could use any language to build your controllers and the native render could be written in a different language that is native to the OS.
I think the guy who makes SumatraPDF did something along those lines with Swift and Golang, to build a Mac app.
Re: Ask HN: Is a React Native like approach to desktop apps better than Electron?
#3It can be in theory, but in practice managing native widgets across all major platforms is such a mammoth project that it's almost impossible. People have been trying for decades, rarely with success.
Re: Ask HN: Is a React Native like approach to desktop apps better than Electron?
#4React is great, but I really like the idea of multi-process desktop apps, where the rendering happens in one process and one or more controlling processes pipe events to and from it. That way you could use any language to build your controllers and the native render could be written in a different language that is native to the OS. I think the guy who makes SumatraPDF did something along those lines with Swift and Go…
That's pretty much what React Native is, but using JS as the control and React's declarative API.
Re: Ask HN: Is a React Native like approach to desktop apps better than Electron?
#5Blink has so much investment, and is moving so fast, that I don't think React Native's renderer can keep up meaningfully.
As far as I know it doesn't support s huge number of useful CSS, like Grids, variables, transitions, multiple border styles, text-transform...
Re: Ask HN: Is a React Native like approach to desktop apps better than Electron?
#6Yes. It still leaves you with the monster of Javascript frameworks, but the (very, perhaps more, significant) monster of running (and distributing!) a browser for every app.
It's also arguably easier to make it look nice.
Re: Ask HN: Is a React Native like approach to desktop apps better than Electron?
#7React is great, but I really like the idea of multi-process desktop apps, where the rendering happens in one process and one or more controlling processes pipe events to and from it. That way you could use any language to build your controllers and the native render could be written in a different language that is native to the OS. I think the guy who makes SumatraPDF did something along those lines with Swift and Go…
That's pretty much what React Native is, but using JS as the control and React's declarative API.
I thought React ran in-process for native apps.
Re: Ask HN: Is a React Native like approach to desktop apps better than Electron?
#8It can be in theory, but in practice managing native widgets across all major platforms is such a mammoth project that it's almost impossible. People have been trying for decades, rarely with success.
The .net has Eto.Forms which does something similar
Re: Ask HN: Is a React Native like approach to desktop apps better than Electron?
#9It can be in theory, but in practice managing native widgets across all major platforms is such a mammoth project that it's almost impossible. People have been trying for decades, rarely with success.
Huh? There are thousands of successful apps doing exactly that. The browsers Electron builds upon are the prime example!
Re: Ask HN: Is a React Native like approach to desktop apps better than Electron?
#10It can be in theory, but in practice managing native widgets across all major platforms is such a mammoth project that it's almost impossible. People have been trying for decades, rarely with success.
Huh? There are thousands of successful apps doing exactly that. The browsers Electron builds upon are the prime example!
How so? They are rendering HTML, not native elements.