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I fully agree with the author, only I'd call Electron the PHP for the desktop (it does help people get started quickly, at a cost).

There are working solutions for cross-platform native UI development and high-performance, slim code: http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Multiplatform_Programming...

The problem is: most people don't bother learning new languages unless it's very easy (well, Pascal is!). I hope Go will have a cross-platform UI soon.




What does PHP have to do with this?

And Go already has bindings for QT which is a cross-platform UI framework.

This has nothing to do with people not wanting to learn new languages, it's just the time it takes to build an app. For you to build a QT hello world app takes probably 20 minutes worth of downloading, setup, and coding. To do the same you download electron, create an index.html with hello world and drag and file into electron, bam a hello world app.

The problem is desktop development is overly complex. React and modern Javascript make creating desktop apps using HTML/CSS with some combination of Javascript easy.

What we need to do is find a way to create a very slim browser that contains just an HTML/CSS to 2d context and a Javascript engine. Call it Electron slim and release that.


> What does PHP have to do with this?

It's the RAD choice for beginners since... ca. 1997?

> For you to build a QT hello world app takes probably 20 minutes worth of downloading, setup, and coding. To do the same you download electron, create an index.html with hello world and drag and file into electron, bam a hello world app.

Perhaps the first time ever, the 2nd attempt you will be equally fast.

Does a well-funded startup not have 20 minutes to test a platform?

As far as Lazarus is concerned: give it a try, it won't take 20 mins.

> What we need to do is find a way to create a very slim browser that contains just an HTML/CSS to 2d context and a Javascript engine.

Christ, no. There are no slim browsers anymore and it's a pitiful environment for native applications.


Don't forget about [PHP for the desktop](http://gtk.php.net/) ;)




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