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Electron is pushed by JS devs because now they can target another platform with their toolset. The JS crowd is rather large. Sadly, Electron style apps aren't g

Electron is pushed by JS devs because now they can target another platform with their toolset. The JS crowd is rather large. Sadly, Electron style apps aren't going to go away any time soon.

solarkraft 9y ago
I hate electron apps ("Simple and light-weight SQL client" is 200MB [or more, because it filled my drive]), but understand why they are used. Creating a good UI is just so easy for JS devs. There are tons of libraries and the web compatibility is an extremely powerful point. I'm really still looking for a solution that is fairly light weight, ease-of-development focused (-> encouraging good code, many don't seem to be) and supports the web as a target. Kivy is looking to have good principles, but the standard UI kit is quite awful. Supports popular targets except for the web. Qt quick (controls) enables both a good desktop feel and an aright one on mobile platforms. Doesn't support the web (but PureQML is an effort to port the language). Haxe looks promising but public adoption, for some reason, seems very slim. Adobe Air and things like that promise similar things, but example apps are complete garbage. React Native works quite well on mobile. There could probably be a similar effort on the desktop, it's surely possible to do something - but then again I'm not a huge fan of javascript either. I have started doing projects in a browser myself because it is so easy to get started and share what you made, so I can understand that people would want to just use the work they did and bundle it up for shipping. It just looks like something could be done for Electron to lose some weight, at least. Why does it require a Nodejs environment and a browser for every app? Why not adopt the browser model of feeding apps into one renderer for display? Things like that. Maybe they'll wake up some day.
- girvo 9y ago
  Agreed re. JavaScript, which is why I use Reason (ReasonML if you want to google it) with React and ReactNative. Ocaml but with a syntax that’s easier for my team to swallow, compiles to JS. The Bucklescript team deserves all the nice things in life for their amazing work!
greggirwin 9y ago
It's OK if they don't go away. We just end up looking better (and having more fun doing so) in comparison. :^)

Electron is pushed by JS devs because now they can target another platform with their toolset. The JS crowd is rather large. Sadly, Electron style apps aren't going to go away any time soon.

solarkraft 9y ago

I hate electron apps ("Simple and light-weight SQL client" is 200MB [or more, because it filled my drive]), but understand why they are used. Creating a good UI is just so easy for JS devs. There are tons of libraries and the web compatibility is an extremely powerful point. I'm really still looking for a solution that is fairly light weight, ease-of-development focused (-> encouraging good code, many don't seem to be) and supports the web as a target. Kivy is looking to have good principles, but the standard UI kit is quite awful. Supports popular targets except for the web. Qt quick (controls) enables both a good desktop feel and an aright one on mobile platforms. Doesn't support the web (but PureQML is an effort to port the language). Haxe looks promising but public adoption, for some reason, seems very slim. Adobe Air and things like that promise similar things, but example apps are complete garbage. React Native works quite well on mobile. There could probably be a similar effort on the desktop, it's surely possible to do something - but then again I'm not a huge fan of javascript either. I have started doing projects in a browser myself because it is so easy to get started and share what you made, so I can understand that people would want to just use the work they did and bundle it up for shipping. It just looks like something could be done for Electron to lose some weight, at least. Why does it require a Nodejs environment and a browser for every app? Why not adopt the browser model of feeding apps into one renderer for display? Things like that. Maybe they'll wake up some day.

girvo 9y ago
Agreed re. JavaScript, which is why I use Reason (ReasonML if you want to google it) with React and ReactNative. Ocaml but with a syntax that’s easier for my team to swallow, compiles to JS. The Bucklescript team deserves all the nice things in life for their amazing work!

greggirwin 9y ago

It's OK if they don't go away. We just end up looking better (and having more fun doing so) in comparison. :^)