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Electron makes it a desktop app. That part has not changed.

nottorp 7y ago
Just because you don't see the browser it doesn't mean it's not still there. No, js/html "applications" are not desktop apps, they're web pages. Doesn't matter how you hide it.
- theredbox 7y ago
  Is Sublime Text a native app or a web page?
  - bdcravens 7y ago
    Native. VS Code is a web page by this definition however.
  - guessmyname 7y ago
    Sublime Text is 100% a native desktop application written in C++ with the Skia graphics library [1][2]. However, only a tiny fraction of Skia’s functionality is actually used, just for rasterizing lines and blitting images. Font rendering is done by using the underlying platform APIs to do the glyph rasterisation. The editor also exposes an ABI/API that plugins can use via Python scripts. C++ provides the cross-platform functionality, Skia provides the cross-platform UI, custom code was written to target specific parts of the UI in macOS (using Cocoa) and Linux (using GTK). A tiny web driver is used to render a super-minimal set of HTML tags for tooltips. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11689481 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11689481 [1] https://skia.org/ https://skia.org/
- bdcravens 7y ago
  Ditto for Cordova/Ionic in the mobile space. And to a lesser degree, React Native.
- paxys 7y ago
  If an app is running on its own and not in a web browser, it is a desktop app. The language or framework it is written in does not matter. Do you consider VS Code a web page as well? What about Spotify?
  - lpcvoid 7y ago
    Actually, yeah, I would argue that specially Spotify is simply a website bundled with some chromium.
  - nottorp 7y ago
    If you don't see the browser it doesn't mean it isn't there. There's always some chrome instance rendering the html and interpreting the js. Extremely wasteful. (Right now Slack seems to use 600 MB ram on my desktop). And yes, VS code is a web site by my definition. Not an application.
- mtarnovan 7y ago
  Not sure why you were downvoted. I agree with this definition. This is the main point of the whole discussion about the Slack client being bloated, consuming huge amounts of memory (and sometimes CPU) etc.
- lpcvoid 7y ago
  Why is he being downvoted? He is correct. Websites are not programs.
- batina 7y ago
  Correct! I don't get why people are scared of writing native applications. It's not that hard.
0xDEEPFAC 7y ago
Yea.. I would say Slack is an electron "client" or something like that - just like I would say Java programs are "clients" of the JVM. Both are only "native desktop applications" if you squint your eyes.

Just because you don't see the browser it doesn't mean it's not still there. No, js/html "applications" are not desktop apps, they're web pages. Doesn't matter how you hide it.

theredbox 7y ago
Is Sublime Text a native app or a web page?
- bdcravens 7y ago
  Native. VS Code is a web page by this definition however.
- guessmyname 7y ago
  Sublime Text is 100% a native desktop application written in C++ with the Skia graphics library [1][2]. However, only a tiny fraction of Skia’s functionality is actually used, just for rasterizing lines and blitting images. Font rendering is done by using the underlying platform APIs to do the glyph rasterisation. The editor also exposes an ABI/API that plugins can use via Python scripts. C++ provides the cross-platform functionality, Skia provides the cross-platform UI, custom code was written to target specific parts of the UI in macOS (using Cocoa) and Linux (using GTK). A tiny web driver is used to render a super-minimal set of HTML tags for tooltips. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11689481 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11689481 [1] https://skia.org/ https://skia.org/
bdcravens 7y ago
Ditto for Cordova/Ionic in the mobile space. And to a lesser degree, React Native.
paxys 7y ago
If an app is running on its own and not in a web browser, it is a desktop app. The language or framework it is written in does not matter. Do you consider VS Code a web page as well? What about Spotify?
- lpcvoid 7y ago
  Actually, yeah, I would argue that specially Spotify is simply a website bundled with some chromium.
- nottorp 7y ago
  If you don't see the browser it doesn't mean it isn't there. There's always some chrome instance rendering the html and interpreting the js. Extremely wasteful. (Right now Slack seems to use 600 MB ram on my desktop). And yes, VS code is a web site by my definition. Not an application.
mtarnovan 7y ago
Not sure why you were downvoted. I agree with this definition. This is the main point of the whole discussion about the Slack client being bloated, consuming huge amounts of memory (and sometimes CPU) etc.
lpcvoid 7y ago
Why is he being downvoted? He is correct. Websites are not programs.
batina 7y ago
Correct! I don't get why people are scared of writing native applications. It's not that hard.

0xDEEPFAC 7y ago

Yea.. I would say Slack is an electron "client" or something like that - just like I would say Java programs are "clients" of the JVM. Both are only "native desktop applications" if you squint your eyes.