Sciter – Multiplatform HTML/CSS UI Engine for Desktop and Mobile Applications • Hacker News Board

Sciter – Multiplatform HTML/CSS UI Engine for Desktop and Mobile Applications

#1

Post by notRobot » Wed, May 13, 2020, 3:56 AM UTC

Sciter – Multiplatform HTML/CSS UI Engine for Desktop and Mobile Applications
sciter.com

Re: Sciter – Multiplatform HTML/CSS UI Engine for Desktop and Mobile Applications

#2

Post by jarym » Wed, May 13, 2020, 4:51 AM UTC

This looks quite good and pricing seems reasonable. I wonder why I’ve not come across it before. Anyone have experience of this vs Electron?

Re: Sciter – Multiplatform HTML/CSS UI Engine for Desktop and Mobile Applications

#3

Post by vnorilo » Wed, May 13, 2020, 5:08 AM UTC

I got the impression that it runs "Script" instead of js. So porting web apps is not a goal (?)

Looks like something you'd use for UI in a native app.

Re: Sciter – Multiplatform HTML/CSS UI Engine for Desktop and Mobile Applications

#4

Post by couchcombinator » Wed, May 13, 2020, 5:24 AM UTC

jarym wrote: post #2

This looks quite good and pricing seems reasonable. I wonder why I’ve not come across it before. Anyone have experience of this vs Electron?

It's not aiming for 100% compatibility to web standards. More like a familiar way to create GUIs. Electron is a very up to date browser instance, and that is both its strength and weakness.

Re: Sciter – Multiplatform HTML/CSS UI Engine for Desktop and Mobile Applications

#5

Post by cosmotic » Wed, May 13, 2020, 6:33 AM UTC

HTML/CSS based native interfaces are some of the hardest to use, least reliable, least accessible, least robust interfaces I encounter; The demo interfaces on their website all fit into the unusable pot.

I admit most/all of the interfaces I've personal used are using electron/webkit/ie to render which are all quite bloated. Is this different? It's not entirely clear and would be an important differentiator.

I still don't understand the draw though. The best native apps look and behave natively; using a platform like this prevents that or just makes it harder to accomplish. Using such a platform seems like it's entirely developer-focused and not-at-all user focused, which is a shame.

Re: Sciter – Multiplatform HTML/CSS UI Engine for Desktop and Mobile Applications

#6

Post by cosmotic » Wed, May 13, 2020, 6:36 AM UTC

Using 'modern' to describe the platform doesn't communicate anything to me as a developer. Tell me what makes it modern. Tell me why its better. Is it lighter weight? is it easier to develop with? is it better for my users? is it less buggy than other frameworks?

Re: Sciter – Multiplatform HTML/CSS UI Engine for Desktop and Mobile Applications

#7

Post by tluyben2 » Wed, May 13, 2020, 7:15 AM UTC

I have never used this but something better for GUI would be great even if commercial; what I miss (as a native GUI dev) with all(? if you know any besides framework7 which is basically only mobile) of these html/css frameworks is that there is no equivalent of a control library that can be rapidly used without using (bucketloads) of css. When you browse the examples you see that most have some desktop controls like menus etc; I don't want to 'make' those; I just want to start with a theme (Material) and (as backend dev) never touch css while still being able to make something that looks ok and works like an actual GUI app instead of a web page. Like I can (and do) do in native tech all the time.

Is there anything with Electron-ish apps (Sciter is preferable it seems as it has less bloat)? I searched for instance for a desktop theme for Electron and only found a mac os x theme which indeed works like described above but I don't want everything to look like mac os x or windows or linux or ios or android; either it should look native-ish (nothing beats native though) on the platform it runs on , or it should look like something completely 'new'.

Re: Sciter – Multiplatform HTML/CSS UI Engine for Desktop and Mobile Applications

#8

Post by mratsim » Wed, May 13, 2020, 7:41 AM UTC

Assuming you want a very lightweight HTML/CSS UI engine, I think you can get 80% of the way by using webview[1].

It's very tiny (1200 lines single-header file).

I actually wouldn't be surprised if it used webview internally.

[1]: https://github.com/zserge/webview

Re: Sciter – Multiplatform HTML/CSS UI Engine for Desktop and Mobile Applications

#9

Post by realharo » Wed, May 13, 2020, 7:42 AM UTC

mratsim wrote: post #8

Assuming you want a very lightweight HTML/CSS UI engine, I think you can get 80% of the way by using webview[1]. It's very tiny (1200 lines single-header file). I actually wouldn't be surprised if it used webview internally. [1]: https://github.com/zserge/webview

This may be a lot more viable today than it would have been in the past when there were huge compatibility issues between browsers (e.g. which IE version does the user have on their system?). Especially with the Chromium-based Edge in the future.

Re: Sciter – Multiplatform HTML/CSS UI Engine for Desktop and Mobile Applications

#10

Post by [deleted] » Wed, May 13, 2020, 7:44 AM UTC

couchcombinator wrote: post #4

jarym wrote: post #2

This looks quite good and pricing seems reasonable. I wonder why I’ve not come across it before. Anyone have experience of this vs Electron?

It's not aiming for 100% compatibility to web standards. More like a familiar way to create GUIs. Electron is a very up to date browser instance, and that is both its strength and weakness.

[deleted]