Recently, the browser has become this great unifying environment where we can build complex cross-platform experiences available to anyone on demand and not locked into any walled garden. Just off the top of my head:
— WebCodecs. You don’t need ffmpeg; encode in the browser.
— Web Audio. An advanced modular synth graph in the browser.
— WebRTC. P2P communication between browsers. Calls, collaboration, etc.
— WebGPU. Run shaders in the browser.
— File System API & File System Access extensions. Read/write very large files without having to put the entire contents in RAM.
All of this required significant amount of resources to spec and implement. With 80% of funding cut, I struggle to see how it can be maintained. Would be sad to see this rot with bugs.
In this case, good for the developer is good for the user. As users, we get 1) tons more of those (since they’re easier to build, with one codebase that runs on literally every modern computing device, from phones to tables to laptops) 2) without being locked into a walled garden 3) fairly securely (heavily sandboxed, unlike desktop apps).
The sheer number of cool things that got posted on HN in recent years leveraging these APIs.
Sounds good for the user, but as a developer who gives a shit? I'm not porting my webapps to your tinker-toy OS for marginal return on my investment. That's redundant work that I'm not being compensated for, it doesn't matter how lickable the buttons are or how much of your 16gb of RAM I'm wasting.
> I'm not porting my webapps to your tinker-toy OS for marginal return on my investment.
Even more so if there is no return in the first place. Fun toy exploration-style projects, or something to scratch an itch. Remember the GUI for ffmpeg filter graph (that also encodes the video client-side), remember retro music trackers… The kind of stuff people can and do build in single-digit days is perhaps the best thing left about this otherwise bleak post-small post-2.0 age of Web.
— WebCodecs. You don’t need ffmpeg; encode in the browser.
— Web Audio. An advanced modular synth graph in the browser.
— WebRTC. P2P communication between browsers. Calls, collaboration, etc.
— WebGPU. Run shaders in the browser.
— File System API & File System Access extensions. Read/write very large files without having to put the entire contents in RAM.
All of this required significant amount of resources to spec and implement. With 80% of funding cut, I struggle to see how it can be maintained. Would be sad to see this rot with bugs.