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Re:VS Code uses 13% CPU when idle due to blinking cursor ren... by KirinDave on Friday March 24, 2017 @02:33PM (#13951105)
> If you're meaning to say you can write "multi-platform desktop" apps using Electron... I suppose you're technically correct, but they don't feel native on any platform,

You know, people say this, but I'd like to push back on it. "Platform native feel" is not something that I think most folks care about. You may need it if you're looking to ship an app for a pay-for-a-copy model, but the vast majority of computing hours people spend are already mitigated by their web browser of choice, and that seems to not really cause any substantial problems.

Electron is a flawed framework for building an app, sure, but you could argue Cocoa or Windows Universal are equally flawed in many ways. They also require a lot more code to get equivalent layouts, are almost never very good at reactively resizing (you may say it doesn't matter, I say I unplug in an external monitor and expect to have something sane happen). The fact that a bug exist causing repeated simple draws to be more expensive than expected is normal for text editors. You can find issues caused by similar problems in Sublime, Emacs, and even Notepad++.

Re:VS Code uses 13% CPU when idle due to blinking cursor ren... by problems on Friday March 24, 2017 @03:05PM (#13951369)
Maybe it's just me, but I always avoid apps that don't integrate well with my platform. They're just not pleasant to use. I want the same look and feel, I want the same file browser, I want the same DPI scaling my desktop uses and I want the same UI standards followed, not some giant mess of whatever every individual dev decides seems nice that day.

I'm not so sure it's mitigated by the web - people may browse Facebook and a few news sites, but those aren't complex applications at all and they have very simplistic UIs that don't attempt to imitate familiar desktop controls or to show desktop concepts like files and folders.

I have far more problems with Electron app sizing than I do with proper desktop apps - see my examples above.

Re:VS Code uses 13% CPU when idle due to blinking cursor ren... by KirinDave on Friday March 24, 2017 @05:23PM (#13952331)
> I want the same DPI scaling my desktop uses and I want the same UI standards followed, not some giant mess of whatever every individual dev decides seems nice that day.

You must not use OSX native apps then with multiple monitors then. They don't work right (at least not for me!) One of the reasons I use Chrome for so much is that when I change my workspace (as someone who does both coding and project management this is increasingly a requirement) I don't want my UI to clip off the frame unrecoverably or render as a blurry mess.

> I'm not so sure it's mitigated by the web - people may browse Facebook and a few news sites, but those aren't complex applications at all and they have very simplistic UIs

You should look at the Chrome Web Store. But... also... "Facebook?" "Simplistic?" Simplistic is hacker news, where I can't use an Emoji.

> that don't attempt to imitate familiar desktop controls

One last thing: this is much more a sign of the current UI style of the time, and is very much a product of a post iPhone world where unique visual styles are expected. Even then, a text editor is such a specialist piece of work even native apps struggle and cheat, doing things like avoiding sheet animations and providing unique UI and UX components. Native apps have been introducing their own file hierarchy and multi-modal buttons since the time of emacs.