This seems a good starting point for a complex yet possibly constructive tool-related discussion.
I recently started building a bunch of personal productivity and hobby apps using Lazarus / Free Pascal, because there are quite a few things I didn't want to deal with from the web development world:
- Constant browser upgrades that can instantly change how well your JS tools work, especially if you integrate third-party components like CKEditor
- The sheer number of different types of updates that are spread across various front- and back-end contexts: HTML, CSS, JS, and PHP/More JS/whatever, but then you've also got to consider your choice of editor / coding environment, whether you're using SASS, any deployment tools, fonts and font services, etc.
- Having a single binary to use vs. needing to open a web browser which will then try to tie everything together for you, meanwhile maybe you have good reason not to be using a web browser at all
- Working with tons of files that exist locally, and will always exist locally, and which you don't want to add to a server or the cloud (doable via the web tools but just a bit weird in its way)
It's been nice to just build a thing I need and see it immediately fit into normal native desktop app characteristics, meanwhile I can focus on the productive logic and workflow. But that doesn't really even sum it up, does it? You can do _something like that_ on the web...it's just different.
I found myself with ample time to design an icon for my latest desktop app, having completed all the main functions, and caught myself smiling at the thought--it was a good feeling.
I recently started building a bunch of personal productivity and hobby apps using Lazarus / Free Pascal, because there are quite a few things I didn't want to deal with from the web development world:
- Constant browser upgrades that can instantly change how well your JS tools work, especially if you integrate third-party components like CKEditor
- The sheer number of different types of updates that are spread across various front- and back-end contexts: HTML, CSS, JS, and PHP/More JS/whatever, but then you've also got to consider your choice of editor / coding environment, whether you're using SASS, any deployment tools, fonts and font services, etc.
- Having a single binary to use vs. needing to open a web browser which will then try to tie everything together for you, meanwhile maybe you have good reason not to be using a web browser at all
- Working with tons of files that exist locally, and will always exist locally, and which you don't want to add to a server or the cloud (doable via the web tools but just a bit weird in its way)
It's been nice to just build a thing I need and see it immediately fit into normal native desktop app characteristics, meanwhile I can focus on the productive logic and workflow. But that doesn't really even sum it up, does it? You can do _something like that_ on the web...it's just different.
I found myself with ample time to design an icon for my latest desktop app, having completed all the main functions, and caught myself smiling at the thought--it was a good feeling.