6 ms·

In 1995 I could write a GUI app that processed incredibly complex datasets (even for today, although smaller in total size since my hard drive was 40mb). Drag

In 1995 I could write a GUI app that processed incredibly complex datasets (even for today, although smaller in total size since my hard drive was 40mb). Drag and drop controls onto a page, and even if I wrote my own control population logic, I was done in hours. Try that with web dev. It’s sad that it’s not better - but it’s not better.

speedgoose 5y ago
Could your 1995 application be used by everyone on every system in a tap/click ?
- jokethrowaway 5y ago
  I can't speak for 1995, but a bit later Java run equally bad on every platform and Qt run almost almost natively pretty much everywhere and with great tools to assemble UIs.
  - speedgoose 5y ago
    In my opinion web provides a developer experience that is a lot more enjoyable than Java and Qt can do for user interfaces. I have to admit that I only did small projects on Java and Qt frontends, but it was not very nice. Qt needs to be adapted and compiled for every platform, it takes time and efforts and it's not interesting. And making a good frontend in Java is hard, I can't think of any Java application with a good frontend.
    - barbarbar 5y ago
      What about IntelliJ? Though some would say it is a bit "not lightweight". But it does have a lot of features.
      - speedgoose 5y ago
        It’s not a very impressive user interface. It works as an IDE but I would not show it to non developers as an example of a good Java user interface.
- yahn00 5y ago
  Multi platform with web isn’t easier than native OS Whole lot of sites suck on mobile, not all devices have the grunt Write once run anywhere continues to be a pipe dream Also none of my desktop apps track me or blast me with ads This is just about the GUI too; I can install a CLI only setup, and do science, infrastructure, and avoid the web framework or OS GUI bloat… There’s no one size fits all anywhere.
easrng 5y ago
There's no good drag and drop builder, but I can absolutely make a working, decent-looking webapp in an hour.
- cplusplusfellow 5y ago
  A drag and drop builder would certainly lower the barrier to entry for those of us not [necessarily wanting to be] familiar with every single detail of how CSS / HTML / JavaScript work. We just want a pretty app to demonstrate our backend.

speedgoose 5y ago

Could your 1995 application be used by everyone on every system in a tap/click ?

jokethrowaway 5y ago
I can't speak for 1995, but a bit later Java run equally bad on every platform and Qt run almost almost natively pretty much everywhere and with great tools to assemble UIs.
- speedgoose 5y ago
  In my opinion web provides a developer experience that is a lot more enjoyable than Java and Qt can do for user interfaces. I have to admit that I only did small projects on Java and Qt frontends, but it was not very nice. Qt needs to be adapted and compiled for every platform, it takes time and efforts and it's not interesting. And making a good frontend in Java is hard, I can't think of any Java application with a good frontend.
  - barbarbar 5y ago
    What about IntelliJ? Though some would say it is a bit "not lightweight". But it does have a lot of features.
    - speedgoose 5y ago
      It’s not a very impressive user interface. It works as an IDE but I would not show it to non developers as an example of a good Java user interface.
yahn00 5y ago
Multi platform with web isn’t easier than native OS Whole lot of sites suck on mobile, not all devices have the grunt Write once run anywhere continues to be a pipe dream Also none of my desktop apps track me or blast me with ads This is just about the GUI too; I can install a CLI only setup, and do science, infrastructure, and avoid the web framework or OS GUI bloat… There’s no one size fits all anywhere.

easrng 5y ago

There's no good drag and drop builder, but I can absolutely make a working, decent-looking webapp in an hour.

cplusplusfellow 5y ago
A drag and drop builder would certainly lower the barrier to entry for those of us not [necessarily wanting to be] familiar with every single detail of how CSS / HTML / JavaScript work. We just want a pretty app to demonstrate our backend.