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    ryanisinallofus avatar ryanisinallofus 3 years ago | link | on: Web vs. native: let’s concede defeat

    TLDR: The answer is “it depends” but I don’t see this as a war. In so many cases you need web and native.

    The two themes of the article:

    1 Native is better than web at being native

    2 If people will want your product on their home screen, build an app. Otherwise build a website.

    How is this even a war to win or lose? Native IS better on mobile devices at being native but you probably can’t choose between web and native. Your users are often going to be on both their phones and their desktops which means web apps too. Often the real choice is: which first?

    I use the native Trello, GMail, Freshbooks (ugh), Cal, Keep apps on my phone and I use the web versions of each on my desktop. Not one has a particularly web-like UI on web and all are extremely valuable to me. How are any of those not “complex, app-like structures?” They also each work very well together because they are web. I can link to a Google Doc in a Trello ticket and vice versa with no new app specific behaviors to learn.

    Is modern FE app development constructed with hacks upon hacks? Sure. But some work very, very well. Should we rethink how some of our products for the web designed and developed and perhaps not rush into Blogs written in Angular? Of course! But I won’t concede defeat of the greatest computing platform ever to the current computing oligarchy of Apple and Google and I don’t think anyone else needs to either.

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      mattgreenrocks avatar mattgreenrocks 3 years ago | link

      I like this answer.

      There’s no war, only people pinning their identities on dumb things like platforms. History shows us that there have always been platform fragmentation. I don’t see this trend reversing itself, no matter how much time, money, committees, and blind faith we dump into any platform.

      It’d be nice if there was just one platform, but there usually isn’t. That’s fine; the interesting parts of computation are rarely in the platform-specific details. I don’t know why everyone gets so hung up on them when they change drastically every 5 years.

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        Irene avatar Irene 3 years ago | link

        Thanks. Agreed, and it’s been bizarre not seeing this perspective more prominently.

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          adsouza avatar adsouza 3 years ago | link

          There are some very popular new apps that have no desktop client whatsoever, like SnapChat and WhatsApp.

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            ryanisinallofus avatar ryanisinallofus 3 years ago | link

            Instagram was the most popular example. Some apps are certainly best mobile only but for many others its really mobile first.

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              pilkch avatar pilkch 3 years ago | link

              I tried the Instagram website on mobile just then and it is a bit rubbish. It asks if you want to open the app first. When you are viewing a photo there is no swiping left or right to other photos.

        1. apy avatar apy 3 years ago | link | on: An open letter to Matz on Ruby type systems (2014)

          [Comment removed by author]

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            ryanisinallofus avatar ryanisinallofus 3 years ago | link

            Your comment adds nothing to the conversation, includes no specifics about the ideas presented in the open letter, and probably belongs on Reddit or some other place. The open letter is exactly that and you can learn the answer to your question with a bit of googling: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=what+is+an+open+letter

            If anything, your comment could have been directed at yourself: “I am not really sure who this comment is actually written for, but I felt this one read rather condescending.”

            The author presents his hopes for the possible Ruby type system. Surely Matz knows all these things already but the open letter might be highly informative to many ruby programmers. Though I was aware of all the gradual type systems mentioned other than StrongTalk, the list is probably very useful to people looking to check out gradual typing before types come to Ruby.

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              apy avatar apy 3 years ago | link

              A downvote would have been sufficient. Or perhaps a request to explain why I felt the particular way. I’m not sure how claiming my comment belongs on reddit or and attack on my character elevates your response.