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PWA is very slick for making complex client-side web applications work and feel much more like native mobile applications, in terms of faster launch, off-line,

PWA is very slick for making complex client-side web applications work and feel much more like native mobile applications, in terms of faster launch, off-line, etc. (And by the way, the machinery to make them work is getting quite nicely integrated in the box with Angular for example - I expect the same for other SPA libraries coming soon also). But I am somewhat skeptical of the implications beyond SPAs, which is that, across the entire Internet, basically every static website in the world should be converted to a PWA for an optimal mobile experience. Doesn't that seem backwards? Shouldn't mobile browsers have a way to "just work" and give a great experience for static websites, rather than changing all the sites? Shouldn't we only need something like PWA for rich SPAs?

mxbck 9y ago
I would argue that, while not every site should have to be converted to a PWA to work properly, every site can benefit from it. If a website is not a complex SPA, why should it not be fast, secure or offline-accessible? HTTPS or Service Worker caching is not something a mobile browser can do for you by default.
- zerkten 9y ago
  It seems to me that a lot of the technology making up PWA has been bundled with a PWA philosophy that has made it difficult for folks coming from a progressive enhancement background to understand how it can be applied. Too many people make it seem like an all-or-nothing deal, or couple learning these technologies with other technology that's not an essential. In reality you can incrementally add pieces to your approach for new site, or improve an old site.
untog 9y ago
I agree to an extent, but it's important to remember that Progressive Web Apps are really just a branding exercise for a bunch of different technologies, and you don't have to implement them all. A news site might see huge value in implementing push notifications, whereas a shopping site might not. Messaging sites may see huge value in background sync, but it will be of little value to others. So on, and so forth. My main complaint is that the biggest win for PWAs is simple caching - you can explicitly choose which resources to add to a cache instead of relying on the normal browser cache. This becomes necessary on mobile because the browser cache is very small and is emptied far too often - I'd rather them solve that problem before forcing everyone to make a service worker just to ensure their CSS and JS is cached successfully.

mxbck 9y ago

I would argue that, while not every site should have to be converted to a PWA to work properly, every site can benefit from it. If a website is not a complex SPA, why should it not be fast, secure or offline-accessible? HTTPS or Service Worker caching is not something a mobile browser can do for you by default.

zerkten 9y ago
It seems to me that a lot of the technology making up PWA has been bundled with a PWA philosophy that has made it difficult for folks coming from a progressive enhancement background to understand how it can be applied. Too many people make it seem like an all-or-nothing deal, or couple learning these technologies with other technology that's not an essential. In reality you can incrementally add pieces to your approach for new site, or improve an old site.

untog 9y ago

I agree to an extent, but it's important to remember that Progressive Web Apps are really just a branding exercise for a bunch of different technologies, and you don't have to implement them all. A news site might see huge value in implementing push notifications, whereas a shopping site might not. Messaging sites may see huge value in background sync, but it will be of little value to others. So on, and so forth. My main complaint is that the biggest win for PWAs is simple caching - you can explicitly choose which resources to add to a cache instead of relying on the normal browser cache. This becomes necessary on mobile because the browser cache is very small and is emptied far too often - I'd rather them solve that problem before forcing everyone to make a service worker just to ensure their CSS and JS is cached successfully.