Does the world need another cross-platform framework? Tough, here's JetBrains with Compose Multiplatform

An open-source Kotlin framework for cross-platform applications, based on Jetpack Compose for Android, is now in preview. Google's Jetpack Compose is an official framework for building a user interface in an Android application, and reached version 1.0 last week, at the same time as the first stable release of Android Studio, …

[elsergiovolador]

Bloat

The bloat has to constantly catch up with the increase of processing power and vice versa.

I mean starting up any JetBrains app is an ordeal and your laptop gets ready to take off spinning those fans like "I am a drone now, catch me!".

I wish they focused their resources on figuring out how to make editor responsive.

But I must say it's an achievement that using an editor in 2021 on a latest powerful machine feels exactly the same as in 2011.

[devin3782]

Re: Bloat

Not just a responsive editor, but I don't have to set up ALL my preferences each time I create a new project, eclipse has the same problem (the last time I used these). I want global settings for language preferences, cli tools, editor fonts/colours etc... and project level settings to tell the IDE things specific to the project.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Bloat

Try NetBeans - it has those features, and has come along nicely since becoming an Apache project. I tried IntelliJ several times, but while the editor is fine, not being able to have multiple projects open simultaneously was very frustrating.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Bloat

I tried IntelliJ several times, but [...] not being able to have multiple projects open simultaneously was very frustrating

I have no problems with this in InteliJ.

[A Non e-mouse]

Re: Bloat

I use both InteliJ & PyCharm on a 7-year old laptop.

I accept that at launch my laptop's fan kicks in as the IDE re-indexes the code & libraries (More for InteliJ than PyCharm). But that only lasts a second or two and after that, the fan is silent and the IDEs are as fast as I need. e.g. auto-complete suggestions pop up instantly and are intelligent in their suggestions, finds are pretty much instant, etc.

I used to use Eclipse (on the same laptop) and that was glacial in comparison to the JetBrains products.

If it wasn't for the release notes saying "Updated JVM to version <BLAH>" I wouldn't have guessed the products were written in Java.

[ICL1900-G3]

Re: Bloat

Or indeed 1972 with George 3 Screenedit.

[AMBxx]

Hmm

Looks like a lot of dependencies over which you have no control and Google could drop the important bits on a whim.

[mattaw2001]

Re: Hmm

Looks like a lot of dependencies over which you have no control and Google could drop the whole framework* on a whim.

*FTFY

[actually I agree 100% with your post but another framework that does not offer compelling advantages using a coding style that is 20+ years old is probably not going to survive for too long. Do we really need another framework that draws its own widgets again? Wasn't this Java/Hypercard/...? *Le sigh*]

[Anonymous Coward]

Does the world need another cross-platform framework?

No.

[Cybersaber]

Won't someone think of the Ops folks?

Every time I see a developer-centric article about 'including a JRE in your installer' for the given aim of 'so that users don't have to manage installing a JRE' I want to first scream into a pillow while briefly imagining horrible things I want to do to any developer that does that.

If *I* deploy a JRE, my managment processes will know about it, report on it, and keep it up to date. When devs sneak in four different JREs alongside their apps, now I *think* I have patched all the JRE security vulnerabilities, but all I've done is patched the one *I* installed and know about. The four private copies I didn't know the various applications were *actually* using and are just waiting for the bad guys to find and exploit the vulnerabilities in these unpatched private copies.

This is an anti-pattern, and I wish IDE makers would quit enabling this behavior. :(

[knarf]

Fix Resharper first please

Its a complete mess and sucks up so much resources that its usable for 5-10min as it spins up.

Been using resharper forever, but recently thinking its not worth it.

[Elledan]

JavaFX?

I thought that JavaFX had kicked Swing to the curb years ago already? Does anyone honestly still use Swing beyond legacy applications?

Good on the JVM platform for having another GUI standard, I guess.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: JavaFX?

JavaFX is pretty much dead. It was never bundled with the Java runtime, so when Oracle were looking to cut costs they just gave up on it. It was an OK alternative to Swing, but just never got much traction with developers.

[I code for the bacon]

Re: JavaFX?

Well, the development of JavaFX Web applications never took off because HTML 5 and WebAssembly. The killing of Java Plugin by major browser makers was the last nail for the coffin. But for desktop application development, JavaFX is very much alive and kicking. As Jetbrains states, desktop realm is a niche market now. But it is a strong one, well worth the effort of giving some care to it.

[Warm Braw]

Most vendors want to move away from graphical UI builders

I can see how that argument might be made if you're wedded to the notion of a "reactive" UI that adapts to the characteristics of the individual devices: you can't offer a WYSIWYG UI builder when "WYG" is highly variable.

However, I think the whole "reactive" UI paradigm is largely wishful thinking. It's just about doable for phones and tablets, but your typical finger-stabbing UI would be frustratingly inappropriate on the desktop. And you need to approach the UI very differently for people with sensory or motor impairment.

Instead of trying to pretend that platform differences can be abstracted away, I'd be more convinced by an approach that acknowledged the need for a plethora of different UIs, but made it possible to implement them in a functionally-consistent way.

[Anonymous Coward]

So many frameworks...

... and UI are getting worse and worse.

As long as the tiny screen of a phone is the main target device, anything else will simply look ugly and uncomfortable to use. If an application is not mobile first, and will probably never run on a phone, there's really no need to develop it as if it was.

People have rightly complained about the Windows "Metro" UI forced on desktop users - but then they swallowed the many ugly UI ported from mobile or web applications to desktop ones as if it was a good idea - yet just delivering barely usable UIs with a lot of flaws.