DeskGap
Dev tools
desktop app framework
SHOW HN2019
318points
260comments
#91of 2,195 in 2019
Top 5%of 2019 by points
How HN took it
MixedNo clear lean
10 positive, 16 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 13 critical, out of 41 comments about the project. Thread score -0.14.
Performance: 5 for, 6 againstExecution: 2 for, 2 againstDesign: 1 for, 2 againstIdea: 0 for, 2 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Lower RAM overhead than Electron for simple apps
From 1 comment
Based on my experiences of using Safari, Edge and Chrome, the RAM overhead is lower. However as the app gets more complex the overhead becomes irrelevant. So for now I consider…
patr0nus on HN
Interesting alternative to Electron
From 2 comments
I've seen a day ago a recording of a presentation from last week FOSDEM where two other libraries, Lorca[0] (Go + HTML5) and Webview[1] (C++/C/Go), were described that are…
IronBacon on HNBTW for those looking for interesting cross-platform focused UI systems, Nuklear is pretty cool: https://github.com/vurtun/nuklear
hardwaresofton on HN
Objections
Only supports macOS and a specific Windows version, no Linux
From 2 comments
I find it amusing that the opening paragraph describes it as a "framework for building cross-platform desktop apps" and then shortly below that in the "Supported Platforms"…
userbinator on HNA Slack written with DeskGap wouldn't run on Linux. I'm using Slack in the browser anyway but maybe not supporting Linux could make some software fail compared to a competitor…
pmontra on HN
Relies on inconsistent system webviews and cross-browser testing burden
From 2 comments
These projects completely overlook _why_ people choose Electron over the system view. - Nobody wants to be testing against multiple browser/rendering engines in 2019. - Nobody…
Klonoar on HNThat just isn't true. You only need to browse caniuse.com for 5 minutes to see there are significant differences between browsers even for mature CSS features. If you want to use…
onion2k on HN
Requires Windows October 2018 update and excludes older Windows
From 2 comments
Requiring your Windows users to have the October 2018 update makes no sense.
tbodt on HN"Older Windows’ do not have a modern browser engine, only the one that powers Internet Explorer." ...as if that's an excuse.
boooohoooo on HN
Security concerns given Electron's past Node integration issues
From 1 comment
There was about a year and a half worth of security work done on Electron (particularly targeting the Node integration and how Node APIs were exposed). I worry that not a lot of…
tptacek on HN
Requests
Linux support
From 2 comments
I find it amusing that the opening paragraph describes it as a "framework for building cross-platform desktop apps" and then shortly below that in the "Supported Platforms"…
userbinator on HNA Slack written with DeskGap wouldn't run on Linux. I'm using Slack in the browser anyway but maybe not supporting Linux could make some software fail compared to a competitor…
pmontra on HN
Support for older Windows versions
From 2 comments
I am hoping Microsoft's moving Edge to chromium will allow this project to work on a more Windows platforms. The new Edge will support Windows 7 & 8.…
mgamache on HN"Older Windows’ do not have a modern browser engine, only the one that powers Internet Explorer." ...as if that's an excuse.
boooohoooo on HN
Questions
Why is the executable larger than an Electron-packed one
From 1 comment
I'm a little bit confused, why would the executable be larger than packed with Electron? One would assume that if you don't need to pack chromium the executable size should be…
wolfi1 on HN
Will KDE/Qt support be added
From 1 comment
Will there ever be KDE support, since Qt also provided a HTML toolkit?
stevefan1999 on HN
Alternatives named
Electrino
From 1 comment
Hi HN, DeskGap is another try to build an lightweight alternative to Electron. Compared to the existing attempts [0, 1], I choose not to go that far and bundle a real Node.js…
patr0nus on HN
Quark
From 1 comment
Hi HN, DeskGap is another try to build an lightweight alternative to Electron. Compared to the existing attempts [0, 1], I choose not to go that far and bundle a real Node.js…
patr0nus on HN
Lorca and webview
From 1 comment
I've seen a day ago a recording of a presentation from last week FOSDEM where two other libraries, Lorca[0] (Go + HTML5) and Webview[1] (C++/C/Go), were described that are…
IronBacon on HN
Sciter
From 1 comment
Sciter (https://sciter.com) then, as it is not like Electron - it is not using any web view at all. But it does use HTML/CSS in the same way as WPF uses XAML for UI definitions.…
c-smile on HN
PHPDesktop
From 1 comment
https://github.com/cztomczak/phpdesktop, same concept without memory leak. Please, check it out
a-barpetia on HN