Java had the issue that it was hard to build a consumer desktop app, because Swing etc. were a bit removed from native (L&F, behavior etc.). Those didn't matter as much for desktop apps, which always looked gross. (The issue that they were less usable than the terminal apps they sometimes replaced is another issue)
These days, I'm not sure if fixing that is enough. I long for the days when minor UI inconveniences like Borland-ish button icons or that weird Basic thing in the early days of OS X were the worst offenders. Quite often it's _required_ that you deviate from your platform quite a lot, as we've embraced form over function with mobile- and web-like "experiences". Whitespace everywhere, mystery meat navigation and non-conformant widgets and shortcuts that make you long for the skeuomorphic mistakes of the late 90s. Neither Apple nor Microsoft seem to be too much into HIGs these days, and Linux never was.
So if this delivers the bricks, what kind of houses would we build with it?
"Those didn't matter as much for desktop apps, which always looked gross."
I don't understand what you mean by this. I don't think desktop apps "look gross" at all. Or did you mean that Swing desktop apps looked gross because they didn't conform to the native look and feel of the platform they were running on?
These days, I'm not sure if fixing that is enough. I long for the days when minor UI inconveniences like Borland-ish button icons or that weird Basic thing in the early days of OS X were the worst offenders. Quite often it's _required_ that you deviate from your platform quite a lot, as we've embraced form over function with mobile- and web-like "experiences". Whitespace everywhere, mystery meat navigation and non-conformant widgets and shortcuts that make you long for the skeuomorphic mistakes of the late 90s. Neither Apple nor Microsoft seem to be too much into HIGs these days, and Linux never was.
So if this delivers the bricks, what kind of houses would we build with it?