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A browser engine which supports a subset of the features of Chrome, Firefox etc and can be used as a lightweight and fast alternative to Nodejs/Electron for cro

A browser engine which supports a subset of the features of Chrome, Firefox etc and can be used as a lightweight and fast alternative to Nodejs/Electron for cross-platform desktop app development could be a really useful product.

ori_b 6y ago
Since you are ditching compatibility here, you can also ditch the browser engine.
- est31 6y ago
  You only ditch compatibility for existing content. You still keep some level of compatibility with developer knowledge and teaching material. Most websites and electron apps don't need a WebSQL implementation, yet all electron apps ship with one, bloating the downloads for all users.
  - solson4 6y ago
    Or maybe even have those sort of features be broken out as modules. Can have a flag that says you’re using this JavaScript library or that css layout module at compile time and not ship with anything else.
  - SahAssar 6y ago
    I don't think WebSQL is the best example. Chromium uses SQLite for other things (bookmarks, history, etc.) and WebSQL is mostly a JS API for interfacing with SQLite so I'm guessing the overhead isn't huge (and SQLite is pretty small to begin with).
    - est31 6y ago
      Good point, and while the average Electron app probably doesn't need history or bookmarks, there are probably use cases it would still need WebSQL for. Another example would be the ffmpeg copy it ships to play back videos of various formats, even though the electron app only plays back a few hardcoded animations that all are in a single format.
- kelnos 6y ago
  Isn't part of the draw of Electron that you can essentially stuff your (presumably already existing) web app in a box that runs as a standalone app[0]? If that's the case, removing compatibility would mean losing most of the draw. [0] Yes, I know there's more to it than that.
- pkphilip 6y ago
  Some level of compatibility will be good to have so that a lot of the Node modules can be used as is. However a lot of old standards etc can be thrown out.
niutech 6y ago
There is already a lot of lightweight alternatives for Electron: electrino, neutralino, Quark, Deskgap, WebWindow, litehtml, tomsik.cz/graffiti, yue, nodegui, etc. No need for yet another one.

ori_b 6y ago

Since you are ditching compatibility here, you can also ditch the browser engine.

est31 6y ago
You only ditch compatibility for existing content. You still keep some level of compatibility with developer knowledge and teaching material. Most websites and electron apps don't need a WebSQL implementation, yet all electron apps ship with one, bloating the downloads for all users.
- solson4 6y ago
  Or maybe even have those sort of features be broken out as modules. Can have a flag that says you’re using this JavaScript library or that css layout module at compile time and not ship with anything else.
- SahAssar 6y ago
  I don't think WebSQL is the best example. Chromium uses SQLite for other things (bookmarks, history, etc.) and WebSQL is mostly a JS API for interfacing with SQLite so I'm guessing the overhead isn't huge (and SQLite is pretty small to begin with).
  - est31 6y ago
    Good point, and while the average Electron app probably doesn't need history or bookmarks, there are probably use cases it would still need WebSQL for. Another example would be the ffmpeg copy it ships to play back videos of various formats, even though the electron app only plays back a few hardcoded animations that all are in a single format.
kelnos 6y ago
Isn't part of the draw of Electron that you can essentially stuff your (presumably already existing) web app in a box that runs as a standalone app[0]? If that's the case, removing compatibility would mean losing most of the draw. [0] Yes, I know there's more to it than that.
pkphilip 6y ago
Some level of compatibility will be good to have so that a lot of the Node modules can be used as is. However a lot of old standards etc can be thrown out.

niutech 6y ago

There is already a lot of lightweight alternatives for Electron: electrino, neutralino, Quark, Deskgap, WebWindow, litehtml, tomsik.cz/graffiti, yue, nodegui, etc. No need for yet another one.