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A decade ago, Java was derided for letting developers ship apps on multiple platforms while forgoing native controls, with a high memory and storage footprint w
by Shank 5y ago
A decade ago, Java was derided for letting developers ship apps on multiple platforms while forgoing native controls, with a high memory and storage footprint with the JRE through the JVM. While JavaScript is not Java, it has essentially become Java: instead of shipping a JRE and Jars, it’s the entirety of Chromium, with its JS VM, and a relatively high memory and storage footprint.
It seems to me like we haven’t changed much here, resource wise.
Then, particularly on mobile devices, many apps recreate native controls with weird quirks or defects that don’t play nicely with the native conventions. Just like in the Java world, you can get “almost perfect” but if the OS updates or a convention changes, the non-native apps are stuck reinventing the wheel to accommodate change (or they ignore it entirely).
As a developer, I love writing the same app for multiple places. As a user, I find it infuriating to deal with. While Apple is assuredly being lame by preventing other browser engines (I want Firefox, with WebRequest in blocking mode), they’re not wrong if they think that more PWAs will bring problems.
- otterley 5y agoYou're about a decade off. It's been over two decades! (Remember Java Swing?)
- srgpqt 5y agoiOS 15 changed the default text color of <button> elements to blue. Thanks Apple, it is very helpful and certainly not defacing many apps and sites at all! /s
- WA 5y agoI agree with everything, one thing though: > they’re not wrong if they think that more PWAs will bring problems Why? Webview-based apps (Cordova, Capacitor) are very common, especially in the long-tail of the App Store. PWAs and Cordova-based apps are more or less exactly the same. The only difference is: - No 30 % for IAPs for Apple. - No App Store rules enforcement. Hence, maybe Apple fears some brand damage if a porn PWA gets very popular. So, the difference for the end user compared to App Store-approved Webview-based apps is non-existant. It must be a policy thing, not a technical thing.
- rejhgadellaa 5y ago> [Javascript is] the entirety of Chromium, with its JS VM, and a relatively high memory and storage footprint. You seem to confuse javascript with an Electron app. Electron apps are web apps, packaged with an entire Chromium build. Each Electron app runs in its own Chromium wrapper. So yes, if you run 5 Electron apps, memory usage will be high. Javascript is just a programming language. Web apps run in 'the' browser. Any browser. So the same instance of the browser can run multiple web apps without adding the footprint of an entire new browser instance.