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Funny. I came here to complain that it's not a standalone app and yet another crappy browser app.

infogulch 9y ago
I also would prefer standalone apps, but if my choice is between a browser app and a "standalone app" made with electron, the browser app wins in a landslide.
- sli 9y ago
  When did Electron even enter the conversation from Mozilla's side? It seems like people are inserting that detail entirely on their own.
- zaarn 9y ago
  With WASM this is no longer a problem. Just supply your own JVM-for-WASM. The standard does expect it to be ported natively to platforms eventually. It would be quite interesting when Browser Apps could also run as native apps without relying on electron (ie, being able to pull up their own UI when not provided one)
  - collinmanderson 9y ago
    > It would be quite interesting when Browser Apps could also run as native apps without relying on electron (ie, being able to pull up their own UI when not provided one) What do you see as the advantage of native at that point - having its own window?
    - imtringued 9y ago
      Most likely filesystem access and other native features like desktop notifications. Then there is the efficiency. My suspicion is that electron has a completely misconfigured caching system. Usually only one browser is running on a system and therefore many applications share the caching system. This means each electron application has an oversized cache that wastes memory and disk without meaningfully increasing performance.
      - collinmanderson 9y ago
        so is web or electron more efficient? Also, web now has desktop notifications - right?
    - stronglikedan 9y ago
      Being able to use it without internet connectivity, as well as the local file system access and efficiency gains that another commentor pointed out.
    - zaarn 9y ago
      Electron is basically a standalone browser tab. This is quite resource expensive. If WASM apps simply use their own rendering, ie the Qt Toolkit they get a much more native feel on top of having a rendering engine that is more optimized for out of browser use (due to not having a DOM, etc.) It would also slim down the applications a lot, notably when you dynamically link against the toolkit (which also means you share the lib with other apps instead of every app having it's own copy of electron)
berdon 9y ago
My principal complaint was going to be "why not a plugin" to the various editors that already exist (eg. VSCode, Sublime, Vim, etc). I saw the screenshot and thought, ugh, YAEA (yet another electron app).
- mbebenita 9y ago
  The goal of the project is to help you "learn and teach others about WebAssembly", so it's more of a fiddle environment than an IDE.

I also would prefer standalone apps, but if my choice is between a browser app and a "standalone app" made with electron, the browser app wins in a landslide.

sli 9y ago
When did Electron even enter the conversation from Mozilla's side? It seems like people are inserting that detail entirely on their own.
zaarn 9y ago
With WASM this is no longer a problem. Just supply your own JVM-for-WASM. The standard does expect it to be ported natively to platforms eventually. It would be quite interesting when Browser Apps could also run as native apps without relying on electron (ie, being able to pull up their own UI when not provided one)
- collinmanderson 9y ago
  > It would be quite interesting when Browser Apps could also run as native apps without relying on electron (ie, being able to pull up their own UI when not provided one) What do you see as the advantage of native at that point - having its own window?
  - imtringued 9y ago
    Most likely filesystem access and other native features like desktop notifications. Then there is the efficiency. My suspicion is that electron has a completely misconfigured caching system. Usually only one browser is running on a system and therefore many applications share the caching system. This means each electron application has an oversized cache that wastes memory and disk without meaningfully increasing performance.
    - collinmanderson 9y ago
      so is web or electron more efficient? Also, web now has desktop notifications - right?
  - stronglikedan 9y ago
    Being able to use it without internet connectivity, as well as the local file system access and efficiency gains that another commentor pointed out.
  - zaarn 9y ago
    Electron is basically a standalone browser tab. This is quite resource expensive. If WASM apps simply use their own rendering, ie the Qt Toolkit they get a much more native feel on top of having a rendering engine that is more optimized for out of browser use (due to not having a DOM, etc.) It would also slim down the applications a lot, notably when you dynamically link against the toolkit (which also means you share the lib with other apps instead of every app having it's own copy of electron)

berdon 9y ago

My principal complaint was going to be "why not a plugin" to the various editors that already exist (eg. VSCode, Sublime, Vim, etc). I saw the screenshot and thought, ugh, YAEA (yet another electron app).

mbebenita 9y ago
The goal of the project is to help you "learn and teach others about WebAssembly", so it's more of a fiddle environment than an IDE.