All of my degree was in C, C++, C#, Java, etc. and the one class I had that did web applications did Java backends and middleware with PHP frontends. It wasn’t until I got into the industry that I had to learn Angular, Electron, React, Django, etc.
I don’t think it’s the devs making these decisions.
It’s the minimum effort that translates to minimum time that translates to minimum cost for the business. Why hire another developer for a mobile app (or another platform) when you could just have the same web dev write it. Or without hiring another dev, why have the same dev need to build up tooling in another language when you can just reuse from the existing platform
To add insult to injury, the demands are often really unclear. Changing something in an electron app is often pretty straight forward. Not so much in a C# or especially C++ app
Lol I mean I would never use windows 11 or defend that use of it. I’m just saying a valid use of electron is to target multiple platforms with minimal development hurdles.
Having built applications with Microsoft’s mfc, Java’s swing, the omnipresent Qt, and whatever nastiness Mac was using in the early 00’s, electron is worth the silliness. Trust me. Trust me.
So weird. I spent more than two years of my career working on a Qt app (not by choice) but I’ve never met another human being who has ever even heard of Qt. Nothing else has ever made me so certain that I’m clinically insane.
My favorite thing about Qt was the use of C++ for the back end and Javascript for the UI layer. It lets companies take advantage of the, uh, four people in the world who are good with both languages.
Nice. My team constantly gripes about it but I’m all, “…it’s a well designed UI toolkit…?” I can make it do anything. It took me weeks (as a newbie) to try to lay out UI components just so with the new hotness and at the end I had to give up and move on. It would’ve taken me five minutes to do it with Swing.
the amount of ire CPU cycles / frames / watts it draws is overboard. Lol
(Trying to be funny not aggressive lol)
For real though, I think it’s just because it epitomizes that “Hardware is fast now so throw sluggishly interpreted high-level code at it and don’t even bother with optimization” mentality.
Like I remember when people would bash Python over this, but Electron apps make that feel way overblown now.
Because why go for native performance when you can go for minimum effort on all platforms.
When all you have is
a hammerJavaScript, everything looks like anailweb page.Kids these days don’t bother learning languages that actually compile to native apps.
All of my degree was in C, C++, C#, Java, etc. and the one class I had that did web applications did Java backends and middleware with PHP frontends. It wasn’t until I got into the industry that I had to learn Angular, Electron, React, Django, etc.
I don’t think it’s the devs making these decisions.
It’s the minimum effort that translates to minimum time that translates to minimum cost for the business. Why hire another developer for a mobile app (or another platform) when you could just have the same web dev write it. Or without hiring another dev, why have the same dev need to build up tooling in another language when you can just reuse from the existing platform
Exactly, that and the “we are a [insert product name here] shop” mentality. The things I have had to fight for over the years are mind boggling.
It is the devs. Management says they need it fast then the devs say “fuck you here’s your browser tab app”.
I deam of a dev job that would let me actually write a good app…
To add insult to injury, the demands are often really unclear. Changing something in an electron app is often pretty straight forward. Not so much in a C# or especially C++ app
Let’s get you to bed grandma
Because you want a cross platform solution?
I get that electron can be slow, bloated, etc, but the amount of ire it draws is overboard.
Yes but sometimes, for example core parts of windows 11 like the start menu, don’t need to be cross platform and should be native, not a pwa
Especially since they had already native code in previous windows…
Lol I mean I would never use windows 11 or defend that use of it. I’m just saying a valid use of electron is to target multiple platforms with minimal development hurdles.
Having built applications with Microsoft’s mfc, Java’s swing, the omnipresent Qt, and whatever nastiness Mac was using in the early 00’s, electron is worth the silliness. Trust me. Trust me.
Reminder to talk to your doctor about a colonoscopy
Ugh. Cancel reminder, ready to take my chances with rectal cancer…
Understandable
So weird. I spent more than two years of my career working on a Qt app (not by choice) but I’ve never met another human being who has ever even heard of Qt. Nothing else has ever made me so certain that I’m clinically insane.
My favorite thing about Qt was the use of C++ for the back end and Javascript for the UI layer. It lets companies take advantage of the, uh, four people in the world who are good with both languages.
Hah! Yeah, qt has some really neat interfacing. And it is in so many places you wouldn’t expect it to be…
As an engineer, Swing is great! Granted, I wouldn’t use it to deliver a polished UI to users.
The individual things themselves weren’t really the issue. Swing was by far my favorite.
The issue was cross platform ui development. If you didn’t target Java, swing wasn’t viable.
Nice. My team constantly gripes about it but I’m all, “…it’s a well designed UI toolkit…?” I can make it do anything. It took me weeks (as a newbie) to try to lay out UI components just so with the new hotness and at the end I had to give up and move on. It would’ve taken me five minutes to do it with Swing.
Swing is what all these xml layout tools have been trying to replicate, honestly. Some get close, but far too few.
It warmed my heart when GWT basically copied swing for its layout. Made that super easy to learn.
I’ll admit I’m not versed enough as a developer to grasp this so I’ll take your word for it.
… I’mma just build my cross platform programs in Godot and nobody can stop me. >:)
I won’t, Godot is perfectly cromulent.
Electron is broken in implementation
We need something like React native for desktop
Yeah, something better is welcome for sure.
the amount of
ireCPU cycles / frames / watts it draws is overboard. Lol(Trying to be funny not aggressive lol)
For real though, I think it’s just because it epitomizes that “Hardware is fast now so throw sluggishly interpreted high-level code at it and don’t even bother with optimization” mentality.
Like I remember when people would bash Python over this, but Electron apps make that feel way overblown now.
(Also Python did nothing wrong :( lol)