You probably don't need a single-page app

Re:You probably don't need a single-page app by superkuh on Sunday February 17, 2019 @03:03PM (#19186503)

As browsers close the gap they simply become the OS but slower, more abstracted, and with less security. And they stop being good browsers. It's the old emacs situation come round again.

The only positives are to corporations and institutions with profit motives to decrease dev time and increase ability to spy on users and extract rent from them.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:You probably don't need a single-page app by jomohke on Sunday February 17, 2019 @06:30PM (#19187585)

> they simply become the OS but slower, more abstracted, and with less security.

I agree with slower, at least for computational tasks, but not security. Do you feel safer installing an organisation's native app than using their web app?

> The only positives are to corporations and institutions with profit motives...

What advantage does the web give to corporations that native apps don't? You mention spying, but the native mobile app ecosystem is filled with tracking and analytics code (and it's easier to hide it). The only corporation-level difference I can see is that native apps are heavily tied to a specific company's platform, while web apps aren't. This is a huge positive to the web - I've felt free to change platforms many times.

A second huge and underestimated positive of the web is backwards compatibility (ie. lower maintenance headaches). A complicated internal web app I wrote eight years ago is still running despite not being modified. The websites and lousy javascript I wrote as a kid in 1999 still run exactly the same as in 1999. Spacejam.com is unmodified from 1996. Yet I have many native apps from two years ago that no longer run correctly due to OS updates (especially on mobile).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:You probably don't need a single-page app by expertentipp on Sunday February 17, 2019 @05:47PM (#19187387)

> As browsers close the gap they simply become the OS but slower, more abstracted, and with less security

Browsers are forced to implement standards like CORS, single-origin policy, and multiple levels of SSL certificate validation and thus are more secure than most of native apps. How do you know whether that mobile app is not signing in over HTTP? In a web browser it's obvious instantly.

> motives to decrease dev time and increase ability to spy on users and extract rent from them.

Literally the worse what can happen over web browser is tracking based on various forms of fingerprinting. Native apps? MAC addresses, SSIDs, serial numbers - EVERYTHING is available for the native app to send ANYWEHERE, even over HTTP.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:You probably don't need a single-page app by qudat on Monday February 18, 2019 @12:57AM (#19188893)

> and with less security.

v8 is probably one of the most strenuously vetted pieces of software on the planet.

[ Parent | on HN ]