I so strongly wish more developers gave even a single shit about this. The current state of desktop app development is truly an embarrassment.

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LauraMedia 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

There is a deeper problem in this: The DX for native applications is too annoying, undocumented or hard for most people.

I tried to build some of my tools without Electron, it's always a battle of multiple documentations for multiple systems and creating a bespoke system or having to deal with UI documentations that are glorified API references without examples.

The last few tools I built used PhotinoNET, which gave me an electron-esque framework but not bundling it's own chromium, instead using the browser already on the system. And even that required a complicated build script so I can just export a simple flatpak, exe and dmg...

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malnourish 12 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Who is embarrassed? What are the realized harms?

	▲	PaulHoule 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Microsoft seems to have given up on guidance for how to write desktop apps, Windows 8 had that Metro thing that got rejected by the world. I guess you could use Win32, WinForms, WPF or something else. The incoherence is second only to the Linux world, I remember how developers were crazy about theming in Win32 in the ‘95 age so something like Back Orifice or the app for your scanner looks atrocious. WPF added really great support for theming but at the point everybody was burned out in theming so it hardly ever got used.