Why is that obvious? The only thing that’s obvious to me is that if these cross-platform GUI frameworks don’t support the web then almost no one who needs to build a cross-platform GUI will have any use for them.
Because I was responding to "The reason electron took off if because it was the first to offer an easy way to build cross platform apps".
If you're defining "cross platform" as, strictly, "the Web", then I'm not really sure what kind of exchange you're trying to have or what you're trying to add, here. Obviously only the web satisfies the criterion of being the web. Which makes me wonder even more why you didn't find that obvious.
I'm certainly not trying to define "cross-platform" to mean "the web." I'm just pointing out that the web is a huge platform and for many use cases is arguably the most platform for a cross-platform GUI framework to support.
"Webtech's (Electron, specifically) the only reason cross-platform desktop GUI programs are now cheap & easy enough to be viable"
"Well, no, we've had that for a long time, especially if you consider the performance compromises of Electron or in-browser 'apps' to exist within the acceptable range. Electron does make mimicking this year's UI trends as easy on the desktop as on the Web, and doing so on every platform at once, and that was hard before."
"Right, but do those earlier solutions support the web as a platform?"
"... huh?"
See why I'm confused about where you're taking this? It's like someone claimed that airplanes were the only way to travel by machine, and I pointed out that, for one thing, trains existed before that, and now you're asking me if trains can fly. No—and, again, obviously so unless we've got some seriously different life experience, here—but that's... a complete non-sequitur to the conversation already in progress.
I think you’re conflating two very different things.
The first thing is using web technology to build apps that are distributed as native apps on many platforms (which works because there are open source web browser engines that already support most computer platforms). This is what Electron is.
The second thing is for any cross-platform framework to support targeting the web, because the web is itself a very huge platform. This is important, because not all platforms and situations support installing native apps. If you want your cross-platform app to work on web browsers, you need your cross-platform app to support targeting the web. This might be important if you want your app to work in computer labs, for example.
