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0 pointsvvanders8y ago0 comments

> This "I don't have to learn anything new" factor is literally the only thing Electron has going for it.

Not completely, don't underestimate how hard it is to write a cross platform UI that runs on Windows, OSX and Linux.

Starting from a web framework not only gives you portability but also a common UI language(that may diverge a bit from native app conventions but that's a tradeoff you need to weigh).

I say this as a die-hard C++/native dev. I've done wxWidgets, QT and a bunch of others and it's never a trivial thing to do.

0 comments

ihnorton8y ago

The other thing to keep in mind is that a similarly script-extensible Qt application carries the weight of Qt shared libraries, plus scripted wrapper shims. This can easily run 25-40 MB in Python-Qt systems, at which point 70 MB for Electron looks much less crazy.

(also a C++/Qt dev, jealously eyeing love preview, hot-reloading, and other niceties).

clarry8y ago

> Starting from a web framework not only gives you portability

... except when you actually need to actually, you know, port it, to a platform it wasn't already ported to out of the box.

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