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When there was a single platform (Windows), native made sense as either way it was one codebase. You now need to support at least two desktop platforms and some
by MattGaiser 5y ago
When there was a single platform (Windows), native made sense as either way it was one codebase. You now need to support at least two desktop platforms and some computers now only support web stuff (Chromebooks).
The only argument for native is if resources are such that make a web app impractical for most people (high performance GPU intensive stiff). Otherwise, sure, Electron isn't that efficient and takes up relatively a lot of space, but we are at the point where space and RAM are abundant, so it is not a limiting factor for most people.
- ahartmetz 5y agoWith a cross-platform native toolkit, there is also one codebase.
- sebmellen 5y agoBut what cross-platform native toolkits really work and are easy to get started with? I would love to see some sort of CSS -> native GUI UI kit, or maybe something like what Sublime Text has if it were open-sourced.
- ahartmetz 5y agoI may be biased, but I think Qt is pretty great :) It's C++ though. Some people use PyQt. It's popular in some niches, e.g high end VFX packages, especially plugins.
- sebmellen 5y agoMaybe I've just lived in the webdev world too long and been spoiled by CSS, but making layouts work and fit together is so horribly confounding in Qt and other such frameworks that it makes me want to bash my head against the wall (and I do that enough with CSS). Also, Qt's licensing model is sub-optimal IMO.
- pjmlp 5y agoThere was never a single platform, unless we are talking about 1950's in computing.