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You can use JavaFX or QT (with c++ or python) but they are no match for the eye candy that is to be had with html5 and css3. It's your job to integrate with the

You can use JavaFX or QT (with c++ or python) but they are no match for the eye candy that is to be had with html5 and css3. It's your job to integrate with the platform style, you have the flexibility to do so. Resource usage is a problem but has become manageable over the years. See how pretty and efficient VSCode is. And honestly thank God we have electron, before that a truly cross platform ecosystem was limited to Java and that abomination Adobe AIR.

tjpnz 5y ago
>Resource usage is a problem but has become manageable over the years. I'd add that when VSCode started to gain popularity it was common for a dev system to have only 8~16 GB of memory. In most cases that's now more than doubled.
- secondcoming 5y ago
  That's great for devs, but what about the end-user? They're likely not all on the latest Macs with gigabit fibre.
- dkersten 5y ago
  > In most cases that's now more than doubled. Really? I still find it difficult to get a laptop with more than 16 GB of memory. 13" MBP maxes out at 16 GB. 14" does have 32 for $500 more, which might be ok for a company but is certainly a lot for me to spend personally just so I can run Electron apps comfortably. Non Apple laptops are similar. If I'm buying a laptop instead of a Desktop, its for the ability to conveniently bring it with me when I'm not at home. For that, 13" is my preferred form factor. So at least Apple and Dell laptops, I have not seen one with more than 16 GB. I feel its unreasonable to expect me to sacrifice physical comfort just so apps can be written to use Electron.
  - sshine 5y ago
    Buying a gaming laptop, you can easily get 32GB RAM without paying a premium. If you want a MacBook Pro M1 with 32GB RAM, the total cost is easily twice.
    - ClumsyPilot 5y ago
      'Buying a gaming laptop, you can easily get 32GB RAM without paying a premium' I appreciate gaming laptops, but it cannot be a requirement to run some basic electron apps that very user needs day to day. Why should it take more RAM to run teams htat it does to edit 8K video?
      - sshine 5y ago
        It doesn't require 32GB RAM to run an Electron app, and it doesn't require a gaming laptop. This is a response to how 32GB RAM is not as common in branded laptops (ThinkPad, MacBook Pro) as we'd like. Perhaps you mean it shouldn't take 8-16GB RAM to run an Electron app? It appears from this thread that 4GB RAM is often not enough.
jokethrowaway 5y ago
QML or QWidgets + QSS let you style things as much as you can on the web. The DX is great, their IDE is world class and resource consumption is low. The only reason Electron is popular is that company who shoot at multiplying their revenue need to have web apps - which brought up the demand and salaries of web developers. Web developers being in such a high demand means that people will learn more of web stuff over native. At the beginning of my career I was equally doing as many Qt projects as web projects. Nowadays, when I'm targeting only the better paying clients, I do pretty much only web. The developer experience in Qt is significantly better than anything web related (even after QML got introduced). Jobs in C++ / Qt pay significantly less than what I'm getting. Same for most Haskell / Rust jobs. If the choice is dealing with the pile of crap that web development is and making less money, I'd go with the money. Things are changing in regards to Haskell / Rust, thanks mainly to cryptocurrency. The amount of money generated by the speculation in the crypto world and the fact that a few projects use Rust / Haskell means we're finally getting decently paid jobs using nice languages.
- paulryanrogers 5y ago
  Using Qt now for a fairly simple app and it's got a lot of friction if you really want multiplatform. Updates are such a pain and Qt Creator can't seem to manage maintaining my settings for even the smallest patch version updates. (Thus requiring lots of fiddling each time or working around its wonky defaults.)
BaseballPhysics 5y ago
> Resource usage is a problem but has become manageable over the years. See how pretty and efficient VSCode is. Has anyone else noticed that, in defense of Electron, everyone always trots out this one example, but... that's it? Like, where are all these other magnificently efficient Electron apps? If it's that easy, surely there must be others. And yet...
- sofixa 5y ago
  It's an easy example because everyone knows of it, and many have used it. There are tons of others, probably more niche. For instance, I'm quite happy with Obsidian too, it's fast and snappy.

tjpnz 5y ago

>Resource usage is a problem but has become manageable over the years. I'd add that when VSCode started to gain popularity it was common for a dev system to have only 8~16 GB of memory. In most cases that's now more than doubled.

secondcoming 5y ago
That's great for devs, but what about the end-user? They're likely not all on the latest Macs with gigabit fibre.
dkersten 5y ago
> In most cases that's now more than doubled. Really? I still find it difficult to get a laptop with more than 16 GB of memory. 13" MBP maxes out at 16 GB. 14" does have 32 for $500 more, which might be ok for a company but is certainly a lot for me to spend personally just so I can run Electron apps comfortably. Non Apple laptops are similar. If I'm buying a laptop instead of a Desktop, its for the ability to conveniently bring it with me when I'm not at home. For that, 13" is my preferred form factor. So at least Apple and Dell laptops, I have not seen one with more than 16 GB. I feel its unreasonable to expect me to sacrifice physical comfort just so apps can be written to use Electron.
- sshine 5y ago
  Buying a gaming laptop, you can easily get 32GB RAM without paying a premium. If you want a MacBook Pro M1 with 32GB RAM, the total cost is easily twice.
  - ClumsyPilot 5y ago
    'Buying a gaming laptop, you can easily get 32GB RAM without paying a premium' I appreciate gaming laptops, but it cannot be a requirement to run some basic electron apps that very user needs day to day. Why should it take more RAM to run teams htat it does to edit 8K video?
    - sshine 5y ago
      It doesn't require 32GB RAM to run an Electron app, and it doesn't require a gaming laptop. This is a response to how 32GB RAM is not as common in branded laptops (ThinkPad, MacBook Pro) as we'd like. Perhaps you mean it shouldn't take 8-16GB RAM to run an Electron app? It appears from this thread that 4GB RAM is often not enough.

jokethrowaway 5y ago

QML or QWidgets + QSS let you style things as much as you can on the web. The DX is great, their IDE is world class and resource consumption is low. The only reason Electron is popular is that company who shoot at multiplying their revenue need to have web apps - which brought up the demand and salaries of web developers. Web developers being in such a high demand means that people will learn more of web stuff over native. At the beginning of my career I was equally doing as many Qt projects as web projects. Nowadays, when I'm targeting only the better paying clients, I do pretty much only web. The developer experience in Qt is significantly better than anything web related (even after QML got introduced). Jobs in C++ / Qt pay significantly less than what I'm getting. Same for most Haskell / Rust jobs. If the choice is dealing with the pile of crap that web development is and making less money, I'd go with the money. Things are changing in regards to Haskell / Rust, thanks mainly to cryptocurrency. The amount of money generated by the speculation in the crypto world and the fact that a few projects use Rust / Haskell means we're finally getting decently paid jobs using nice languages.

paulryanrogers 5y ago
Using Qt now for a fairly simple app and it's got a lot of friction if you really want multiplatform. Updates are such a pain and Qt Creator can't seem to manage maintaining my settings for even the smallest patch version updates. (Thus requiring lots of fiddling each time or working around its wonky defaults.)

BaseballPhysics 5y ago

> Resource usage is a problem but has become manageable over the years. See how pretty and efficient VSCode is. Has anyone else noticed that, in defense of Electron, everyone always trots out this one example, but... that's it? Like, where are all these other magnificently efficient Electron apps? If it's that easy, surely there must be others. And yet...

sofixa 5y ago
It's an easy example because everyone knows of it, and many have used it. There are tons of others, probably more niche. For instance, I'm quite happy with Obsidian too, it's fast and snappy.