← Back to context

Comment by r_lee

3 hours ago

I use ImGui regularly, if you believe that it is on the same level as what you can do with React/HTML/CSS/etc. then I don't know what to tell you

I have seen this assumption in recent GUI threads here (More so your upper post): Building a PC application is not equivalent to building a web browser. A web browser is a type of PC application built for a specific (But very broad!) use. I didn't think I would need to write this statement/distinction, but I have here. Web languages, culture, and syntax have not been a value add to PC application development. Electron is the clearest example why. My model is that is the value add of Electron: Appealing to web devs through language and culture.

Regarding "not doing what you can do with HTML/CSS/JS". Doubt. I varied and complex stuff and have never felt I needed to overload document rendering langs for this.

I will go a step further: I don't think Electron is a symptom of HTML/CSS/JS: I suspect it's more from the Node + Framework culture.

  • it's not just about "appealing to web devs"

    you simply just would stumble if you tried to do development like you can in React, constant "uhh... can't do that." while it just works in React.

    I don't think anyone likes the look of Qt more than what you can achieve with webapps in terms of UI (style/etc. wise)

    problem is the performance, I don't think many would be complaining if the performance was proper and the memory usage wasn't as terrible as it is now

    you're talking about web browsers, I don't care what it runs on, if we have a way to run this in a lightweight way, would your complaints go away?

    even Gnome uses JS etc.

    you can do complex stuff in native UI, of course you can

    what I'm talking about is the same kind of DX as with React. I really don't have faith in that, e.g. the new thing Discord is about to use, the css it tries to imitate just seems absolutely terrible.

    the web technologies aren't perfect, in fact, far from it. however, when I see React vs whatever C/C++ alternative, I'd always go for React if it's about making the UI nice.

    I've also shat on Electron before, but there's a reason as to why it's so popular. the tooling/UI capabilities are just much more powerful.