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A comment on Ask HN: What should I use to write native desktop apps for Ubuntu?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: What should I use to write native desktop apps fo... by beojan on Sunday May 27, 2018 @04:35PM (#17168976)
HTML and CSS are actually a pretty terrible syntax for building interfaces, which is unsurprising given HTML is a document format, and CSS is designed to style documents. If they were really the best possible syntax, you wouldn't have so many popular frameworks.

Rather, HTML/CSS/JS is what you're stuck with if you're treating the web as your platform, which is tempting when your code is really just a front-end for a remotely hosted system anyway.

Electron is the result of people trained in web development turning their hands to desktop development, but not wanting to learn something completely new.

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Re:Ask HN: What should I use to write native desktop apps fo... by kevinsimper on Monday May 28, 2018 @04:58AM (#17171378)
Your argument would be much stronger if you actually provided the better alternative, instead you don't bring anything new to the conversation.
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Re:Ask HN: What should I use to write native desktop apps fo... by beojan on Monday May 28, 2018 @05:13AM (#17171443)
Qt Quick. Really, anything that has layouts (Windows Forms, for instance).
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Re:Ask HN: What should I use to write native desktop apps fo... by aphextron on Sunday May 27, 2018 @07:32PM (#17169761)
>Electron is the result of people trained in web development turning their hands to desktop development, but not wanting to learn something completely new.

"Learning something new" has a massive cost when you apply that to an entire engineering team. A tool that can leverage existing resources to make people proficient in a new area simply through new technology would be a huge value added IMO.

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Re:Ask HN: What should I use to write native desktop apps fo... by beojan on Monday May 28, 2018 @12:23AM (#17170580)
Electron just externalizes the cost, it doesn't eliminate it.

Electron is a little like auto-translating your UI. It's easier for the developer and the user pays the price.

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