5 ms·

You mean the times when a developer only had to provide a single version for a single OS instead of what we have today? Excalidraw can be used on basically eve

You mean the times when a developer only had to provide a single version for a single OS instead of what we have today? Excalidraw can be used on basically everything that has a compatible browser: Windows, almost all Linux distros, macOS, Android and iOS, major BSDs ... and that's not even counting in x86 vs x86_64 vs all the different versions of ARM machines we have now. Try to reach all those people without a tech stack based on web. Sure, you can still get desktop and mobile apps by cramming everything into electron or its mobile counterparts, but then we are back to comments like "I miss the days when desktop apps were less than 100MB"? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

capableweb 5y ago
I'm agreeing with your overall point, just wanted to share that APE (αcτµαlly pδrταblε εxεcµταblε)[1] actually can create a single binary that runs on Linux + Windows + Mac + FreeBSD + OpenBSD + NetBSD, truly impressive. - 1, https://justine.lol/ape.html https://justine.lol/ape.html
- ricardobeat 5y ago
  That only solves 10% of the problem, binary portability. You still need to code for a dozen different graphics, I/O, storage etc system APIs.
  - capableweb 5y ago
    For that, see https://justine.lol/cosmopolitan/ https://justine.lol/cosmopolitan/ (C as a build-once run-anywhere language) and https://redbean.dev/ https://redbean.dev/ (single-file distributable web server)
    - deleted 5y ago
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    - ricardobeat 5y ago
      That still only gives you the C sdtlib. This is miles away from building a desktop app with a graphical interface. You'd need to add something like SDL on top.
      - jart 5y ago
        redbean has a https://redbean.dev/#LaunchBrowser https://redbean.dev/#LaunchBrowser function that lets you utilize the highest quality cross-platform gui that's already installed on the user's local machine. Think of it like Electron except with a 1mb install size rather than 100mb. I'm the author and I can tell you cosmo and redbean are ready to meet the needs of many use cases, and if they aren't then I want to know about it. We're also working to expand into OpenGL UX too. You can see our latest progress at https://github.com/jacereda/cosmogfx https://github.com/jacereda/cosmogfx and the screenshots are here https://github.com/jart/cosmopolitan/issues/35#issuecomment-951378880 https://github.com/jart/cosmopolitan/issues/35#issuecomment-... which we're working hard to polish and get merged into the mainline. If you read threads like https://github.com/jart/cosmopolitan/issues/309 https://github.com/jart/cosmopolitan/issues/309 you can see we're committed to making sure your gui apps just work even on traditionally underserved platforms like OpenBSD because our goal is to help you reach the broadest audience possible. Please consider supporting the project!
        numlock86 5y ago
        A lot of people use things like Excalidraw also on their tablets. (mostly iOS and Android) How is this helping? This whole cosmopolitan-fanboy'ism is completely ignoring my initial statement. What are you trying to bring to the table here? Sorry if I sound harsh, but you are really just proving my point here while probably not even realizing it.
        jart 5y ago
        Preferred pronoun is fangirl.
        numlock86 5y ago
  - magpi3 5y ago
    You can write it in Java.
magpi3 5y ago
And it can disappear tomorrow if they developers so choose. Maybe instead it would be better to say I miss the days when I had some control over my apps. Of course I know excalidraw is open source, so someone could just fork it if the developers gave up on it. But this is only true with open source web apps.

capableweb 5y ago

I'm agreeing with your overall point, just wanted to share that APE (αcτµαlly pδrταblε εxεcµταblε)[1] actually can create a single binary that runs on Linux + Windows + Mac + FreeBSD + OpenBSD + NetBSD, truly impressive. - 1, https://justine.lol/ape.html https://justine.lol/ape.html

ricardobeat 5y ago
That only solves 10% of the problem, binary portability. You still need to code for a dozen different graphics, I/O, storage etc system APIs.
- capableweb 5y ago
  For that, see https://justine.lol/cosmopolitan/ https://justine.lol/cosmopolitan/ (C as a build-once run-anywhere language) and https://redbean.dev/ https://redbean.dev/ (single-file distributable web server)
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - ricardobeat 5y ago
    That still only gives you the C sdtlib. This is miles away from building a desktop app with a graphical interface. You'd need to add something like SDL on top.
    - jart 5y ago
      redbean has a https://redbean.dev/#LaunchBrowser https://redbean.dev/#LaunchBrowser function that lets you utilize the highest quality cross-platform gui that's already installed on the user's local machine. Think of it like Electron except with a 1mb install size rather than 100mb. I'm the author and I can tell you cosmo and redbean are ready to meet the needs of many use cases, and if they aren't then I want to know about it. We're also working to expand into OpenGL UX too. You can see our latest progress at https://github.com/jacereda/cosmogfx https://github.com/jacereda/cosmogfx and the screenshots are here https://github.com/jart/cosmopolitan/issues/35#issuecomment-951378880 https://github.com/jart/cosmopolitan/issues/35#issuecomment-... which we're working hard to polish and get merged into the mainline. If you read threads like https://github.com/jart/cosmopolitan/issues/309 https://github.com/jart/cosmopolitan/issues/309 you can see we're committed to making sure your gui apps just work even on traditionally underserved platforms like OpenBSD because our goal is to help you reach the broadest audience possible. Please consider supporting the project!
      - numlock86 5y ago
        A lot of people use things like Excalidraw also on their tablets. (mostly iOS and Android) How is this helping? This whole cosmopolitan-fanboy'ism is completely ignoring my initial statement. What are you trying to bring to the table here? Sorry if I sound harsh, but you are really just proving my point here while probably not even realizing it.
        jart 5y ago
        Preferred pronoun is fangirl.
        numlock86 5y ago
- magpi3 5y ago
  You can write it in Java.

magpi3 5y ago

And it can disappear tomorrow if they developers so choose. Maybe instead it would be better to say I miss the days when I had some control over my apps. Of course I know excalidraw is open source, so someone could just fork it if the developers gave up on it. But this is only true with open source web apps.