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by koonsolo 282 days ago
This coupled with the fact that "web development" now means anything going from a content rich website like a blog, towards some e-shop, all the way to complex applications like ux design, video editing, etc.

It's pretty absurd to have such a broad range of web solutions, and think the same solution can cover everything.
1 comments
fragmede 282 days ago
Why? Microsoft's GUI framework as well as Apple's covered plenty of use cases before the rise of the web browser.
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koonsolo 282 days ago
Then why did HTML became so popular if win32 or MFC were so great?
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motorest 282 days ago
> Then why did HTML became so popular if win32 or MFC were so great?

One of the factors is that web dev pushes for a complete separation of concerns, and thus allows frontend developers to specialize in front end development. Therefore it becomes far easier to hire someone to do frontend work with a webdev background than a win32/MFC background.

Number of applicants is also a big factor. There is far more demand for webdev than pure GUI programming. You can only hire people who show up, and if no one shows up then you need to scramble.

Frontend development is also by far the most expensive part of a project. In projects which use low-level native frameworks you are forced to hire a team for each target platform. Adopting technologies that implement GUIs with webpages running in a WebView allow projects to halve the cost. This is also why technologies like React Native shine.

Also, apps like Visual Studio Code prove that webview-based apps can be both nice to look at and be performant.

It's not capabilities. It's mainly the economics.

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koonsolo 282 days ago
In the win32/MFC days, there was no "front-end developer". There was only HTML and content creators writing it.

Then there came small web applications, and still no "front-end developers", since functionality could only work on the server.

It's only when AJAX was introduced in the mid 2000's that you could start to talk about "front-end developers".

By that time, win32 and MFC was old. We had Java, C# with .net framework, etc.

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fragmede 282 days ago
Because it solved different problems. CSS is terrible, but deployment simplicity and distribution channel were more powerful than how shitty HTML is for making GUIs. The fact that MFC was owned by Microsoft didn't help either.
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koonsolo 282 days ago
Why would you make GUI's with HTML? Its main use was for content, not applications. Hyper Text Markup Language.

So you agree both solve different problems. Well, those are 2 use cases of front-end right now.

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