4 ms·

These things don't have to be bloated. For example, I wrote a web chat once, called minchat (minimal chat) [0]. The frontend is written in plain HTML, CSS and J

These things don't have to be bloated. For example, I wrote a web chat once, called minchat (minimal chat) [0]. The frontend is written in plain HTML, CSS and JS, totalling ~5kb. The backend is written in Rust. There is room for programs that do not need to be installed. Examples are Flash, Java applets, and Javascript. Personally, I think some sort of UI thing based on WASM might be the way to go, but that's just my opinion. Can you think of any other way to run programs from the internet without installing them? Yes, SSH, telnet, remote access, remote X11, but with all of them, the programs are running on a different computer, whereas with web apps, they're running on your own computer, without costing them money, other than hosting costs. I never thought I'd be speaking for web apps, but I guess I'm not, not really. What I'm saying, is there is a niche, and that is currently filled by web apps. [0] https://github.com/coolcoder613eb/minchat https://github.com/coolcoder613eb/minchat

lproven 2y ago
> some sort of UI thing based on WASM might be the way to go Oh dear hypothetical deity, please no! I can best respond by copying my own response from another place: Do you know Greenspun’s tenth rule? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenspun%27s_tenth_rule https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenspun%27s_tenth_rule It was about Lisp, so it’s an ancient thing now, but it still has truth. As far as the Unix/Linux/xBSD world goes, it can be generalised like this: Level 1: Any sufficiently complicated [container or VM management system] contains an ad-hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Plan 9. Level 2: Any sufficiently complicated [bytecode VM or runtime environment] contains an ad-hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Inferno. Wasm to me still smells very much like a second-hand, poorly-conceived, half-assed version of Dis. > There is room for programs that do not need to be installed. Sure there is room. But is this a desirable thing? Is it worth the price in inefficiency and insecurity? If it is, and I am not 100% convinced of that, then design it right into the OS from the outset. Any effort to bolt it on later will be fatally flawed.

lproven 2y ago

> some sort of UI thing based on WASM might be the way to go Oh dear hypothetical deity, please no! I can best respond by copying my own response from another place: Do you know Greenspun’s tenth rule? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenspun%27s_tenth_rule https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenspun%27s_tenth_rule It was about Lisp, so it’s an ancient thing now, but it still has truth. As far as the Unix/Linux/xBSD world goes, it can be generalised like this: Level 1: Any sufficiently complicated [container or VM management system] contains an ad-hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Plan 9. Level 2: Any sufficiently complicated [bytecode VM or runtime environment] contains an ad-hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Inferno. Wasm to me still smells very much like a second-hand, poorly-conceived, half-assed version of Dis. > There is room for programs that do not need to be installed. Sure there is room. But is this a desirable thing? Is it worth the price in inefficiency and insecurity? If it is, and I am not 100% convinced of that, then design it right into the OS from the outset. Any effort to bolt it on later will be fatally flawed.