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vijaybrittotoday at 5:05 AM3 repliesview on HN

Im not sure if people are getting the biggest problem in electron desktop apps.

Its RAM usage not the disk!!

Why are they all making the same thing in different ways?! I have never worked on an electron app where the executable size was an impediment to the business. Its always the RAM/CPU usage. If we are going to work on the same webviews like electron and others, how will this make any difference?


Replies

mpweihertoday at 6:48 AM

Easy: the problem with memory is not the WebView nor is it displaying HTML using that WebView. The problem is the layers of layers of JavaScript (frameworks) running in that WebView when using Electron or the like.

I am working on something similar, HTMXNative as part of a bigger idea called interscri.pt that can use either WebView or native for rendering and the difference in memory consumption is somewhere between minimal (or even undetectable) and modest.

From a baseline that's also modest by current (native) standards.

show 1 reply
cosmotictoday at 5:21 AM

Using the system webview theoretically saves memory. Though it's still not great.

Bolwintoday at 5:20 AM

Cause they all share one webview. Electron apps each run their own version of chromium