The reason the causality sounds backwards is the GP is talking about secondary effects of what you are talking about — the other half of a vicious cycle.
We are already a decade into neglecting native app technologies in favor of web app technologies, because web apps were much easier to write and deliver than cross-platform native apps (and largely still are). It’s to the point where even big companies with lots of resources are hiring web programmers and web designers to build their UIs.
It’s interesting to me that mobile changes the trade-offs. The quality gulf between web and native apps is greater. The web sucks more on mobile, and expectations for native apps (animations, touch, etc) are higher. Mobile OSes also make it much easier for users to install and manage native apps than it is on desktop (because of the app store, no custom installers, no users locked out of installing apps by their employers as far as I know). I’m excited about React Native for addressing the cross-platform part.
We’ve learned since Java that even if you don’t have “write once, run anywhere,” you can still have “learn once, write anywhere,” a la React. Also, we expect apps to come with their own systems of UI widgets these days, not necessarily “native look and feel.” It really changes the game.
We are already a decade into neglecting native app technologies in favor of web app technologies, because web apps were much easier to write and deliver than cross-platform native apps (and largely still are). It’s to the point where even big companies with lots of resources are hiring web programmers and web designers to build their UIs.
It’s interesting to me that mobile changes the trade-offs. The quality gulf between web and native apps is greater. The web sucks more on mobile, and expectations for native apps (animations, touch, etc) are higher. Mobile OSes also make it much easier for users to install and manage native apps than it is on desktop (because of the app store, no custom installers, no users locked out of installing apps by their employers as far as I know). I’m excited about React Native for addressing the cross-platform part.
We’ve learned since Java that even if you don’t have “write once, run anywhere,” you can still have “learn once, write anywhere,” a la React. Also, we expect apps to come with their own systems of UI widgets these days, not necessarily “native look and feel.” It really changes the game.