
In Defense of Electron - mobitar
https://journal.standardnotes.org/in-defense-of-electron-e7d5b5229b70
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neilalexander
Sure, wasteful RAM and CPU is a big problem with Electron, but bigger problems
not addressed in the article include:

\- Total disregard for the user interface experience of the host operating
system, as native UI toolkits are often not used

\- Since native UI toolkits are not used, knowledge that the user already has
about using their computer and how user interface elements should behave
becomes useless every time they download a new Electron app with a different
"design"

\- Electron app developers are rarely qualified to design good usable UI
elements from scratch and are often really bad at it

\- Complete lack of accessibility integration - don't even bother trying to
use an Electron app with a screen reader or other assistive tech

Yes, Electron helps you to rapidly prototype and release something faster, and
it might even lower the barrier to app development, but it also encourages
JFDI mentality and somehow the poor end-users get forgotten about.

~~~
mhink
> Since native UI toolkits are not used, knowledge that the user already has
> about using their computer and how user interface elements should behave
> becomes useless every time they download a new Electron app with a different
> "design"

This is definitely not just a problem with Electron apps. I've seen a _lot_ of
OS X apps written using cross-platform toolkits rather than Cocoa, and _every
time_ it throws me for a bit of a loop.

> Electron app developers are rarely qualified to design good usable UI
> elements from scratch and are often really bad at it

See above. This isn't solely a problem with "Electron app developers"\- more
often it seems to be any developer trying to use a cross-platform toolkit.

> Complete lack of accessibility integration - don't even bother trying to use
> an Electron app with a screen reader or other assistive tech

Do you have any more details about this? I haven't looked much into a11y under
Electron- does it prevent screen readers from detecting ARIA directives?

------
DerArzt
I like that the author decided to take a different approach to thinking about
electron, but his argument that everything is fine for him on his macbook that
has 16gb of ram seems rather weak. Many users may have more economic laptops
that have a realistic 4 - 8 gb of ram. If he were to try using a dev machine
with specs more along those lines, I would be more willing to agree with him.

~~~
aplc0r
Agreed.

I work with many schools, and you may be surprised how many workstations with
4gb of RAM are still out there. When I first started at this company I scoffed
and considered them edge cases, but now I know better.

