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Have you seen the things people have built with Electron? I wouldn't underestimate the capabilities of HTML/CSS/JS for desktop apps when you have projects like Slack, Atom, Visual Studio Code, GitKraken, the Brave browser, etc. all using Electron to build their desktop apps.

discuss

spriggan3|9 years ago

> Have you seen the things people have built with Electron?

Yes and they are slow, memory hungry and often crash for no reason. A javascript+HTML UI just can't compete with an app written in C# and WPF in term of performances.

Razengan|9 years ago

They definitely feel clunkier to use though, if for nothing else but a noticeably less-responsive UI compared to apps using native controls etc.

int_19h|9 years ago

Absolutely. My point is not from user's perspective here, but rather as a developer. WPF has its warts, but it's still a great framework specifically for desktop UI - because it was designed for that from ground up. Doing the same things in HTML/CSS/JS is definitely possible, but requires a great deal more effort.

If you want an analogy, it's kinda like writing web apps in C. Sure, you can do it, but there are much better tools.

MichaelGG|9 years ago

Have you seen the things people have built with PHP? Or works of art made with chisels? :) Tooling can suck and be annoying to use, require enormous resources, etc., while still producing a result people like. We shouldn't confuse the two issues. The result is probably only relevant for true questions of "is it possible", as in "is it possible to write a fast-enough OS kernel in C#".