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> Another productivity booster is Cross-Platform frameworks. I would be so, so happy to see a UI framework that runs (well) on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, an

> Another productivity booster is Cross-Platform frameworks. I would be so, so happy to see a UI framework that runs (well) on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS. My druthers would be for it to have bondings to a JVM language (Kotlin is my happy place these days), but I would be okay writing in any similarly productive language. Flutter is trying to get there, but it's not a viable solution on the desktop yet, and somehow doesn't even have a decent HTML widget. I do like Dart, however; it's similar enough to Kotlin/Swift that I'm comfortable writing it, even if I have to look up exact syntax now and then. Electron wants to solve this problem, but we all know the arguments about its bloated runtime and egg-cooking power usage. I suppose Progressive Web Apps and WebAssembly have the potential to solve this, too.

nikanj 8y ago
Qt mostly does this, if you count modern C++ as a productive language.
ravenstine 8y ago
Why not QT? I'm pretty sure it works well on most if not all platforms and has bindings for every language.
jcelerier 8y ago
https://www.kde.org/products/kirigami/ https://www.kde.org/products/kirigami/
misterbwong 8y ago
(Serious question) Isn't this what Java UI frameworks (swing/javafx/etc) are supposed to address? It's been a while since I've been in the JVM universe so I'm genuinely curious. Also, what about Xamarin/C#? Going from Kotlin to C# should be pretty smooth and Xamarin is supposed to be pretty usable.
- thomascgalvin 8y ago
  Yes, and I've done a lot of GUI work in Swing. The main issue is that Swing doesn't run on Android and iOS.
soulnothing 8y ago
What about Tornado FX? I use Kotlin mutli platform. Share the scss between react(KotlinJS) and Desktop(tornado).
carlosdp 8y ago
I'm on the PWA + WebAssembly train now as a solution for this. I really think we're finally getting close to a world where desktop-apps become truly pointless with Wasm + PWAs, and the WebGPU spec.
- kgraves 8y ago
  This. WebAssembly is in a unique position to be tackling this problem since modern web browsers already have sandboxed OS level access to cameras, microphones, desktop, bluetooth and hopefully GPUs. The future of running Autodesk, Adobe software and AAA grade games on the web is coming nearer with WASM.
tonyedgecombe 8y ago
People have been banging on about cross platform frameworks for years now. They are all too much of a compromise. It probably won't get any better than what we have now.
spdebbarma 8y ago
The Flutter dev team are currently conducting a survey and a couple questions were regarding desktop mode so I reckon Hummingbird is coming pretty soon.

nikanj 8y ago

Qt mostly does this, if you count modern C++ as a productive language.

ravenstine 8y ago

Why not QT? I'm pretty sure it works well on most if not all platforms and has bindings for every language.

jcelerier 8y ago

https://www.kde.org/products/kirigami/ https://www.kde.org/products/kirigami/

misterbwong 8y ago

(Serious question) Isn't this what Java UI frameworks (swing/javafx/etc) are supposed to address? It's been a while since I've been in the JVM universe so I'm genuinely curious. Also, what about Xamarin/C#? Going from Kotlin to C# should be pretty smooth and Xamarin is supposed to be pretty usable.

thomascgalvin 8y ago
Yes, and I've done a lot of GUI work in Swing. The main issue is that Swing doesn't run on Android and iOS.

soulnothing 8y ago

What about Tornado FX? I use Kotlin mutli platform. Share the scss between react(KotlinJS) and Desktop(tornado).

carlosdp 8y ago

I'm on the PWA + WebAssembly train now as a solution for this. I really think we're finally getting close to a world where desktop-apps become truly pointless with Wasm + PWAs, and the WebGPU spec.

kgraves 8y ago
This. WebAssembly is in a unique position to be tackling this problem since modern web browsers already have sandboxed OS level access to cameras, microphones, desktop, bluetooth and hopefully GPUs. The future of running Autodesk, Adobe software and AAA grade games on the web is coming nearer with WASM.

tonyedgecombe 8y ago

People have been banging on about cross platform frameworks for years now. They are all too much of a compromise. It probably won't get any better than what we have now.

spdebbarma 8y ago

The Flutter dev team are currently conducting a survey and a couple questions were regarding desktop mode so I reckon Hummingbird is coming pretty soon.