I've spent the last two years building a new email client

Re:I've spent the last two years building a new email client by tomc1985 on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @02:00PM (#16979572)

The way I see it, user's resources (and their experience related to these factors) aren't part of the calculus that goes into how most companies choose their platforms. To be fair, things have always been this way -- people have been writing good-but-bloated software in shitty frameworks since forever -- but I can't recall a time that one framework so bloated is so heavily in vogue.

(edit: Flash, maybe? Though people mostly didn't try to write too many full apps in it. And Flash projects could be fairly CPU-efficient if effort was put into it, but way less effort than, say, MS with VS Code)

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Re:I've spent the last two years building a new email client by reaperducer on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @03:52PM (#16980570)

I'm fortunate enough to work for a company that sees being thrifty with bandwidth and processing as very important.

We have regular audits to find ways to make things lighter/faster, and therefore better. Occasionally "flashier" mandates from on high override those considerations, but so far it's been specific and rare.

It's probably because our target audience isn't developers.

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Re:I've spent the last two years building a new email client by tomc1985 on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @05:14PM (#16981216)

Funny, following that logic one would think that developers would be the most picky about performance...

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Re:I've spent the last two years building a new email client by reaperducer on Thursday May 03, 2018 @11:09AM (#16986704)

Old developers. Seasoned developers. Developers who know what they're doing.

But the devs coming out of schools today (and half of HN) believe it's OK to build a skyscraper by stacking frameworks one upon the other.

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Re:I've spent the last two years building a new email client by misterbwong on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @04:02PM (#16980649)

I agree with you that efficient resource usage is pretty low on the priority list for a lot of development these days. I wish it wasn't too but that's a different discussion.

Electron being in vogue does definitely compound this issue but the benefits from using it (e.g. cross OS development on a familiar platform & language many devs already know) seem to outweigh the resource problem.

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Re:I've spent the last two years building a new email client by s73v3r_ on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @04:52PM (#16981059)

That's because the devs are not the ones to face the resource problem.

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Re:I've spent the last two years building a new email client by tomc1985 on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @09:31PM (#16982657)

There are many devs that know regular desktop development as well; Electron lets the project manager hire cheaper and more expendable web devs, or the ability to pile the job on their existing web devs, for their otherwise expensive desktop work.

Do any major code bootcamps teach C#, C++, or Java? Or is it all just webtech?

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Re:I've spent the last two years building a new email client by Joeri on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @03:58PM (#16980613)

I wrote a tiny app in flash / AS3 back in the day, a CAD floorplan viewer in a few hundred KB, including baked-in artwork and font. CPU and memory use was quite low. I never considered flash to be bloated or slow. The way most people used it made it bloated and slow, with heavy software-based vector animation, tons of video, and flex. Flex was very developer-friendly but also quite bloated, so I never used it.

I wonder if electron is a bit of the same deal, with the recommended way of using it optimizing for developer efficiency over resource efficiency.

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