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But that is the fundamental problem behind all of web nowadays: It was initially designed for documents; there are precursors for this entire HTML stuff (hyperc

But that is the fundamental problem behind all of web nowadays: It was initially designed for documents; there are precursors for this entire HTML stuff (hypercards and similar things). Funnily enough, there existed tech even back then that was much much better at dealing with actual applications and their requirements. Unfortunately, many stupid idiots decided to use the "web" for that instead and mangle something aimed at documents to hell and back to actually do apps with it. The amount of time (of humans) and resources (not humans, but computing power, energy, ...) wasted on creating and running kludge after kludge to coerce the "web" into "something for apps" is absolute insanity.

mietek 2y ago
You reference HyperCard as if it was only a document creation system; it was not. People have been building applications in HyperCard from the start. https://hypercard.org https://hypercard.org
- pixelfarmer 2y ago
  Yes, that was not intended as such. Thanks!
AlecSchueler 2y ago
They weren't really idiots, though, that's quite harsh. People wanted to be able to share software but there were so many barriers to entry at the distribution/installation/update phases that they used the solution that didn't require any of that. It was a hack but it worked better to serve the needs of the users.
- niutech 2y ago
  Come on, there are so many native cross-platform solutions which are easy to go and much less bloated than web engine, e.g. Qt/GTK+/wxWidgets/Xamarin/etc.
  - anymouse123456 2y ago
    Now take that beautiful application you have made and your customers want, and beg the trolls who sit between you and them for permission to distribute it. Assuming you get said permission some weeks later, now hand over double-digit percentages of your top-line revenue to these despicable rent-seekers, do the same with your tax payments and notice how you're left with less than 30% of the value you have created.
  - AlecSchueler 2y ago
    All of those would require an user to download and install something, no? How do you push updates?
    - niutech 2y ago
      Yes, this is how classic software works. It can download updates in the background, just like e.g. web browsers do. It will be more performant than web apps.
      - AlecSchueler 2y ago
        That's quite a lot of extra code to write. Any app you want to share this way now needs to think about networking, self updating, version management etc.

mietek 2y ago

You reference HyperCard as if it was only a document creation system; it was not. People have been building applications in HyperCard from the start. https://hypercard.org https://hypercard.org

pixelfarmer 2y ago
Yes, that was not intended as such. Thanks!

AlecSchueler 2y ago

They weren't really idiots, though, that's quite harsh. People wanted to be able to share software but there were so many barriers to entry at the distribution/installation/update phases that they used the solution that didn't require any of that. It was a hack but it worked better to serve the needs of the users.

niutech 2y ago
Come on, there are so many native cross-platform solutions which are easy to go and much less bloated than web engine, e.g. Qt/GTK+/wxWidgets/Xamarin/etc.
- anymouse123456 2y ago
  Now take that beautiful application you have made and your customers want, and beg the trolls who sit between you and them for permission to distribute it. Assuming you get said permission some weeks later, now hand over double-digit percentages of your top-line revenue to these despicable rent-seekers, do the same with your tax payments and notice how you're left with less than 30% of the value you have created.
- AlecSchueler 2y ago
  All of those would require an user to download and install something, no? How do you push updates?
  - niutech 2y ago
    Yes, this is how classic software works. It can download updates in the background, just like e.g. web browsers do. It will be more performant than web apps.
    - AlecSchueler 2y ago
      That's quite a lot of extra code to write. Any app you want to share this way now needs to think about networking, self updating, version management etc.