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this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2024
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Programming
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I seriously doubt that a dual-language platform is ever going to supplant Electron. Electron has the major advantage that the entire app is written in one language. And according to Stack Overflow's 2023 developer survey, 66% of devs use JavaScript, 45% use Python, 43% use TypeScript, and 12% use Rust. More devs use Java, C#, C++, PHP, and C than Rust. So 2/3 of developers wouldn't have to learn a new language to use Electron, and only a small fraction of the remainder knows Rust.
It's not a dual-language platform, though. You write the backend and the frontend in Rust. The frontend code is compiled to WASM to serve it to the browser.
Ah, well that’s great for folks who already know or want to learn Rust
The folks who only know JavaScript and refuse to learn more deserve to be blamed for electron's (and similar) continued existence, and therefore for excessive resource usage.
I think this is a bit of a backwards way to look at it. If there is a good reason to learn a language then people will.
Not that this platform is necessarily that reason.
It's not just about learning a language. Given two equivalent languages, writing a project using one or the other is always going to be less work and less of a maintenance burden than writing it using both. A competent manager will take that into account when deciding what tools to use. On top of that, learning a new language has a cost. Of course Rust and JavaScript are not equivalent, but which one is 'better' is highly subjective and dependent on how you measure 'better'. So a manager needs to take that into account. But my fundamental point is that using two languages for a project adds overhead, and learning a language adds overhead, so unless cost (including time) is irrelevant, there must be a compelling reason to choose a dual-language solution* over a single-language solution, and to chose a solution that requires your devs to learn a new language over one that does not. Not to mention switching platforms has a massive cost if your project is already mature. Even if you're creating a new project, if your team already knows JavaScript and doesn't have any particular objection to Electron, there's no compelling reason.
Sure. Except in my experience interviewing candidates and from what I've seen online, there are a lot of developers out there who aren't very good. I am not optimistic that the average developer will have an easy time learning a new language. If the "we" in "Is this the electron alternative we've been waiting for" is you and I, that's not a problem. But if OP meant to suggest there will be a large-scale shift away from Electron, then the average developer is quite relevant.
*As someone else pointed out, Dioxus is designed with the intent that you'll right the frontend in Rust, so it's not exactly dual-language like I thought.