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Figma is a C++ application compiled to webasm that paints to a blank canvas for the majority of it's usage. It's about as 'web' as the unity game engine compil

by novok 5y ago

Figma is a C++ application compiled to webasm that paints to a blank canvas for the majority of it's usage. It's about as 'web' as the unity game engine compiling to web. In development they compile to a macOS app and use instruments to profile it.

Impossible 5y ago
The platform is still web, even if it's not using HTML and CSS. The success of figma has lead to a lot of start ups targeting the web as there main platform, but using WASM (C++ or Rust) and WebGL (soon WebGPU). This makes sense in creative tools, I think. We're also starting to see tools that run on the server and stream video to the browser.
- cercatrova 5y ago
  Christ, don't get me started on that last point. One of the most egregious examples I've ever heard of is Mighty, an app that streams Chrome from a server to your laptop, because apparently fixing Chrome's performance is too much of a hassle that now we need to send a video of our browser back to us. And the worst part is, they might win. Lots of apps are web based with WASM and WebGL like you say, which are purely client side, and lots of people that need to do work might not have good enough computers to run such apps, if we assume (and I believe this to be true) that applications with more and more complexity will be pushed onto the web browser as the universal app interface. If a server can render those apps better and send them back, the client doesn't have to any work. We continuously invent and reinvent the terminal/mainframe architecture, it appears like.
  - friedman23 5y ago
    > And the worst part is, they might win Might? They will win, is it not obvious at this point that every single app in the near future will be sandboxed in some way? The unix grey beards had a couple decades to prove they could write secure software and they failed.
    - WA 5y ago
      Or to write a UIKit that works across Windows, Linux and macOS with no hassle, making cross-platform development easier. But no, we have 3 SDKs on a single platform already and it apparently is confusing. Oh wait, they did create a true cross-platform platform: the browser.
      - pjmlp 5y ago
        It is so cross platform, that some think it is too much work to support various browsers so they bundle Chrome with the application. Could be worse I guess, there are those that ship a whole OS with the application.
  - pjmlp 5y ago
    Basically what was done in X Windows and Citrix/RDP is now the browser's role, and the wheel keeps on turning.
notatoad 5y ago
it's not very "web" if you're concerned about the philisophical purity of the web as a mechanism for distributing html documents. but if you just want an app that works reliably without having to worry about what type of computer you work on, it's very "web". in my books, the ability to compile a unity game to run on the web is exactly why web apps are so great right now.
- novok 5y ago
  When people complain about electron and web apps being wastes, what they are really complaining about is javascript, html and webdev practices. When your using C++ & OpenGL your skipping most of that. OSes can also add a chromium detection layer and make it first class like the rest of the OS system libraries too, because at this point it might as well be.
jolux 5y ago
It runs in a web browser. It's a web app.

by novok 5y ago

Impossible 5y ago

The platform is still web, even if it's not using HTML and CSS. The success of figma has lead to a lot of start ups targeting the web as there main platform, but using WASM (C++ or Rust) and WebGL (soon WebGPU). This makes sense in creative tools, I think. We're also starting to see tools that run on the server and stream video to the browser.

cercatrova 5y ago
Christ, don't get me started on that last point. One of the most egregious examples I've ever heard of is Mighty, an app that streams Chrome from a server to your laptop, because apparently fixing Chrome's performance is too much of a hassle that now we need to send a video of our browser back to us. And the worst part is, they might win. Lots of apps are web based with WASM and WebGL like you say, which are purely client side, and lots of people that need to do work might not have good enough computers to run such apps, if we assume (and I believe this to be true) that applications with more and more complexity will be pushed onto the web browser as the universal app interface. If a server can render those apps better and send them back, the client doesn't have to any work. We continuously invent and reinvent the terminal/mainframe architecture, it appears like.
- friedman23 5y ago
  > And the worst part is, they might win Might? They will win, is it not obvious at this point that every single app in the near future will be sandboxed in some way? The unix grey beards had a couple decades to prove they could write secure software and they failed.
  - WA 5y ago
    Or to write a UIKit that works across Windows, Linux and macOS with no hassle, making cross-platform development easier. But no, we have 3 SDKs on a single platform already and it apparently is confusing. Oh wait, they did create a true cross-platform platform: the browser.
    - pjmlp 5y ago
      It is so cross platform, that some think it is too much work to support various browsers so they bundle Chrome with the application. Could be worse I guess, there are those that ship a whole OS with the application.
- pjmlp 5y ago
  Basically what was done in X Windows and Citrix/RDP is now the browser's role, and the wheel keeps on turning.

notatoad 5y ago

it's not very "web" if you're concerned about the philisophical purity of the web as a mechanism for distributing html documents. but if you just want an app that works reliably without having to worry about what type of computer you work on, it's very "web". in my books, the ability to compile a unity game to run on the web is exactly why web apps are so great right now.

novok 5y ago
When people complain about electron and web apps being wastes, what they are really complaining about is javascript, html and webdev practices. When your using C++ & OpenGL your skipping most of that. OSes can also add a chromium detection layer and make it first class like the rest of the OS system libraries too, because at this point it might as well be.

jolux 5y ago

It runs in a web browser. It's a web app.