3 ms·

That's a great point, but does addressing these finer points take more time than building two separate apps, for Mac and Windows? Or if a service doesn't find

That's a great point, but does addressing these finer points take more time than building two separate apps, for Mac and Windows? Or if a service doesn't find it feasible to build two native apps, aren't their users better off with an Electron app than accessing the web app in their browser? For example, Simplenote has an Electron app for the Mac, and I much prefer that to having to use simplenote.com in a browser.

kitsunesoba 10y ago
I think there's a lot of variables at play, all of which need to be considered. The answer won't be the same for everybody. To me the ideal candidate for electron is moderate complexity with an audience that's likely to value day-1 cross-platform support over other factors. If it veers toward the simpler side of things like Simplenote, electron is overkill, as developing separate native front ends isn't going to pose too much of a challenge (especially if platform agnostic code is shared). On the other end of the spectrum with a high complexity app (e.g. same class as Photoshop, Maya, etc), you're frequently going to find yourself at odds with the limits and performance issues of web tech and whatever conveniences it affords you are largely rendered moot. As for if a wrapper offers value, with ever increasing OS-browser integration I'd say whatever value that's there is quickly being eroded. Personally, if I have the choice of running an Electron wrapped-web-app vs. running a web app in my browser and a true native app isn't available, I'll take the latter in most cases for the greater control it affords me. It allows me to take resource consumption into my own hands (to an extent) by choosing Safari or Firefox instead of embedded Chromium and it lets me controls what scripts are running, what domains are being accessed, etc.
meditationapp 10y ago
Does an electron app make any difference?

kitsunesoba 10y ago

I think there's a lot of variables at play, all of which need to be considered. The answer won't be the same for everybody. To me the ideal candidate for electron is moderate complexity with an audience that's likely to value day-1 cross-platform support over other factors. If it veers toward the simpler side of things like Simplenote, electron is overkill, as developing separate native front ends isn't going to pose too much of a challenge (especially if platform agnostic code is shared). On the other end of the spectrum with a high complexity app (e.g. same class as Photoshop, Maya, etc), you're frequently going to find yourself at odds with the limits and performance issues of web tech and whatever conveniences it affords you are largely rendered moot. As for if a wrapper offers value, with ever increasing OS-browser integration I'd say whatever value that's there is quickly being eroded. Personally, if I have the choice of running an Electron wrapped-web-app vs. running a web app in my browser and a true native app isn't available, I'll take the latter in most cases for the greater control it affords me. It allows me to take resource consumption into my own hands (to an extent) by choosing Safari or Firefox instead of embedded Chromium and it lets me controls what scripts are running, what domains are being accessed, etc.

meditationapp 10y ago

Does an electron app make any difference?