On: Tauri: An Electron alternative written in Rust

[gigel82]

I like Sciter for the possibilities, but it needs better compatibility with web standards. Being able to port an existing application that uses React -for example- and have it just run would be the cat's meow.

Needing to rewrite with other UI/JS frameworks to account for quirks gives me pause.

[c-smile → gigel82]

It depends on what application you have in mind.

React needs web browser compatibility layer to work in Sciter.JS as React was designed strictly for browsers.

For that matter: PReact ( https://preactjs.com/ ) works out of the box already, see : https://github.com/c-smile/sciter-js-sdk/tree/main/samples/p... ;

MithrilJS ( https://mithril.js.org/ ) works as it is also.

SvelteJS works as it is with Sciter.JS too.

Also Sciter.JS has its own native implementation of JSX ( it's built in JS core of Sciter.JS) and also DOM extended by native element.patch(vdom) that makes "reactivity" to work in Sciter.JS with native speed.

Yet quite a lot of UI components are natively built-in. For example:

https://sciter.com/behaviorvirtual-list-for-sciter-and-scite... and https://sciter.com/sciter-js-themes/

[gigel82 → c-smile]

I think the project is great and I admire your work, but I'm confused about how you position it.

Being "almost" web compatible is not a recipe for success, as it's bound to cause confusion and frustration among folks that want it to be an Electron alternative.

Either embrace Web APIs entirely (perhaps a smaller compatible subset), or just position it as something else entirely, like Flutter.

[c-smile → gigel82]

"how you position it"

Hmm... and how do I do that? What's your impression?

Sciter.JS is "an embeddable HTML/CSS/JS UI engine" and that's it.

Yes, it is possible to use it without touching native side like ElectronJS, see: https://quark.sciter.com/ , but that's not the primary use case. So far it has around 400 mln installations in embedded form as part of other products, see: https://sciter.com/#customers

If you want you can treat it as Flutter that uses time proven and familiar HTML/CSS/JS resource definitions instead of Dart. Dart is close to JS but not JS, Flutter has some DOM but not HTML DOM, it has some style system but quite rudimental one.

[gigel82 → c-smile]

I think your description is technically correct, it is an UI engine that uses the HTML, CSS and JS languages.

But to most folks, that sounds like a "web browser/view engine", which it is not. Does it pass the Acid2 / Acid3 test?

The power of ElectronJS is not its use of HTML, CSS and JS, but the fact that it is a web browser engine and one can share the millions of frameworks, libraries and muscle memory built for the web in their desktop applications.

[c-smile → gigel82]

Modern browsers do fail on ACID tests anyway. display:flex broke old box model.

> one can share the millions of frameworks ...

For your *desktop* application you need just one, not millions of them.

> libraries and muscle memory

Not a problem, here I am using Remarkable [1] as it is: https://github.com/c-smile/sciter-js-sdk/tree/main/samples/m..., in other places I may use LeafletJS for showing maps, etc. Essentially all libraries for JS/NodeJS should work out of box.

Problem is that desktop UI has different UI model from a web page. Web page / Web app is usually "endless paper tape" opened full screen - has defined width but no height - no need for vertical alignment for example.

And desktop UI is usually different - small or vertically and horizontally space limited windows, etc.

In Sciter you can show element as popup one - in separate window that can be rendered outside of your [small] app window, consider this popup: https://sciter.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/select-table.p... , good luck with recreating this in browser. By the way that <select> element is defined as:

   <select>
        <tr role=option value="1">
            <td>Option 1</td>
            <td>*Short*</td>
            <td>123456</td>
        </tr>
        <tr role=option value="2">
            <td>Option 2</td>
            <td>******* LOONG ********</td>
            <td>123456</td>
        </tr>
        <tr role=option value="3">
            <td>Option 3</td>
            <td>*Short*</td>
            <td>123456</td>
        </tr>
   </select>

Sciter supports arbitrary markup in selects, popups, etc. No one of "millions of frameworks" will help you with that.

Also this

   <frameset cols="200px,*">
     <section>A</section>
     <section>B</section>
   </frameset>

will give you split-view out-of-the-box. But web dev's will start looking for frameworks in order to achieve this simple component that browser have internally.

TL;DR: Web and desktop UIs use inherently different models. You can share parts between these two different platforms but only parts, really.

[1] Remarkable JS: https://github.com/jonschlinkert/remarkable