4 ms·
What is the benefit of this over using a browser?
by psheets 10y ago
What is the benefit of this over using a browser?
- dothash 10y agoNone I guess. Unless the author adds features though. But then again. What features.
- dhimes 10y agoFolding threads!!! The site needs them; I have a firefox addon called HN Utility Suite.
- PeCaN 10y agoNone, given that it essentially runs in a browser anyway (Electron). I suppose it's very useful if you have ~200MB of RAM and ~80MB disk space that you really want to get rid of. I hate Electron. :-|
- current_call 10y agoNone, given that it essentially runs in a browser anyway (Electron). Oh, there goes that dream.
- tomc1985 10y agoQt/GTK/WinForms or GTFO!
- snuxoll 10y agoWPF/UWP instead of WinForms and I agree. I don't even get why so many people like writing web apps, I feel a hell of a lot more comfortable working with a proper widget toolkit (my preference being GTK or WPF) without the constraints enforced on me by a browser and JavaScript.
- tomc1985 10y agoIt's because there are a lot of people here obsessed with reaching the largest possible audience they possibly can. And since every brother and their mother are on mobile, or, at least, a web browser... The way I see it, mainstream masses are finally (FINALLY!) leaving the world of desktop computing behind, so now it can return to the nerds and people who just wanna do shit
- theandrewbailey 10y agoI think that web app benefits vastly outweigh the constraints. Distribution is easy (give people the URL), the app is always up to date, and it's cross platform. Unless you absolutely need the features and/or speed of a device, you should seriously consider a web app vs. a not web app.
- supernintendo 10y agoWith the recent popularity of Electron, I wonder why less attention has been given to Qt Quick. The JSON-like syntax of QML as well as JavaScript should be very familiar to web developers and you get software that looks much more "native" than what is achievable in the DOM (well, without reasonable effort).
- mlvljr 10y agoHandling ~rich text may be a pain in QML, though -- unless WebEngine (Chromium) is used, but then it becomes a glorified web app, again :). It all depends on what the app should do, of course (should it allow to remember multiple contexts, cache data, store it in a format, allowing quick search, etc.).
- PeCaN 10y agoRight?! Qt Quick is faster for prototyping, at least as flexible, _much_ faster to run, still very cross-platform.... (I like Qt)
- Chyzwar 10y agoI can write my react component and use it in mobile native version, desktop electron, mobile web, web desktop. Can you do the same with Qt? I don't get why people have so strong emotion for Electron.
- current_call 10y agoA browser is like a buggy mini-operating system that hogs resources, tries to replace native applications like PDF readers, word processors, and email clients, and uses JavaScript as its system language. Client applications circumvent the hell of modern web browsers. The benefit is not needing to use a web browser.
- tdkl 10y agoWish there was some kind of a "Electron kitchen" where you could easily make your own app stating which website you want to use in this isolated way, without having to learn about Electron.
- NoGravitas 10y agoThere's nativefier: https://github.com/jiahaog/Nativefier https://github.com/jiahaog/Nativefier
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- tomc1985 10y agoAs mentioned earlier, there's Chrome's "Add To Desktop" option
- amelius 10y agoWhy not just run Chrome in app (or kiosk) mode? I use this for reading my gmail. I use the --user-data-dir flag to prevent the "app" from interfering with my other browsers.
- nilkn 10y agoI guess at the very least it'd be recognized as a separate window/app by the OS window manager, which might be convenient if you like to keep it open all the time and alt-tab to/from it. However, at least on OS X, you can just use something like Fluid if that's all you want (http://fluidapp.com/ http://fluidapp.com/).
- tasnent 10y agoExactly what I needed. Thank you very much.