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It's unfair of me, but I'm always turned off when I see a desktop app that works on multiple platforms. That irrationally soured my first impression, because I

It's unfair of me, but I'm always turned off when I see a desktop app that works on multiple platforms. That irrationally soured my first impression, because I think it otherwise looks like a great tool.

fsloth 11y ago
What? How on earth multiplatform support could be a bad thing?
- sam_goody 11y ago
  If the developer were to have made a swift version for Mac, a C# version for Windows and a C++ version for Linux, that would be very bad. A startup simply cannot reliably keep all up to date, and the product would suffer. If they wrote it in Java and in that way claim multiple platforms, I daresay it would be even worse, on all platforms. If they used a tool that did the conversion for them, it would likely be a security and usability disaster, even though I need sources for that. So a bias against a multi-platform tool is understandable. The one exception is a Javascript tool, since things like Chromium have a LOT of effort put into them by companies with thousands of developers on payroll. However the number of tools that should run in such a environment is limitted.
  - anon2322 11y ago
    Guess what, it is that one exception. Also, now we have lots of apps developed using electron, so welcome to 2016. http://electron.atom.io/ http://electron.atom.io/
- mattiemass 11y ago
  I admitted it was irrational! Twice!
StevePerkins 11y ago
Hmm... generally, I would say that is irrational. Unless you're assuming something like a 1990's Java Swing app, or a GTK app, that achieves cross-platform support at the expense of looking like crap on all platforms. However, based on the fact that this app has an "in-Chrome browser" demo mode available... I'm assuming that it's REALLY a web application, packaged up for desktop use (like the Atom text editor). Personally, I think that the Atom route of "HTML/JavaScript on the desktop" is a poor choice in most cases (a Bootstrap designer tool might be the rare exception). Regardless, there are multiple cross-platform frameworks out there today that look and work just great. Being turned off by cross-plat support is really an outdated bias, I think.

fsloth 11y ago

What? How on earth multiplatform support could be a bad thing?

sam_goody 11y ago
If the developer were to have made a swift version for Mac, a C# version for Windows and a C++ version for Linux, that would be very bad. A startup simply cannot reliably keep all up to date, and the product would suffer. If they wrote it in Java and in that way claim multiple platforms, I daresay it would be even worse, on all platforms. If they used a tool that did the conversion for them, it would likely be a security and usability disaster, even though I need sources for that. So a bias against a multi-platform tool is understandable. The one exception is a Javascript tool, since things like Chromium have a LOT of effort put into them by companies with thousands of developers on payroll. However the number of tools that should run in such a environment is limitted.
- anon2322 11y ago
  Guess what, it is that one exception. Also, now we have lots of apps developed using electron, so welcome to 2016. http://electron.atom.io/ http://electron.atom.io/
mattiemass 11y ago
I admitted it was irrational! Twice!

StevePerkins 11y ago

Hmm... generally, I would say that is irrational. Unless you're assuming something like a 1990's Java Swing app, or a GTK app, that achieves cross-platform support at the expense of looking like crap on all platforms. However, based on the fact that this app has an "in-Chrome browser" demo mode available... I'm assuming that it's REALLY a web application, packaged up for desktop use (like the Atom text editor). Personally, I think that the Atom route of "HTML/JavaScript on the desktop" is a poor choice in most cases (a Bootstrap designer tool might be the rare exception). Regardless, there are multiple cross-platform frameworks out there today that look and work just great. Being turned off by cross-plat support is really an outdated bias, I think.