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0 points_broody12y ago0 comments

I think app-like interfaces on the web are a pipe dream at this point, anyways. Attempts to emulate native interfaces inevitably get stuck in a java-like uncanny valley that's nearly as hard to get out of as it would be rewriting native apps for each platform from scratch.

For all the talk of web apps as credible alternative to native ones, the fact is the current toolchain is unlikely to ever be good for anything more than paper-thin clients. Ecmascript 6 doesn't fix this, Ecmascript 7 won't fix it. HTML5 tags are a worthless collection of semantic sugar when we desperately need a solid component library instead of implementing everything from scratch.

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2 comments · 2 top-level

lukifer12y ago

Agreed that a richer component library is badly needed. However, native apps can and do frequently invent new UI paradigms outside native (games in particular like to invent their own UIs, to varying degrees of success). Rather than poor imitations of native, I think web apps UIs would do well to draw their own cross-platform custom UI elements.

I don't believe that interoperable and usable web apps are a mere pipe dream, on desktop or mobile; can you imagine a world in which the open web never took root, and we were all stuck on AOL, Compuserve, and Prodigy? That's the current app ecosystem in a nutshell, and it's deeply suboptimal for both users and developers.

simonw12y ago

"HTML5 tags are a worthless collection of semantic sugar when we desperately need a solid component library"

What's your opinion of Web Components?

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