Re: [Ring] Future of platform-specific clients?

[Tirifto]

I must write that I am not worried in the least about freedom-related
issues with Ring. The project took a rather clear and quite positive
stance towards freedom as far as I can remember, and eventually it
became a part of the GNU project, so incorporating non-free software
would be a no-go.

As I understand things, JavaScript is a programming language like any
other. The important difference is that modern web browsers (know how
to) download and execute programs written in JavaScript off websites,
as JavaScript programs are nowadays very often tightly incorporated in
websites (which is unfortunate).

Electron appears to be a framework to help writing applications in
JavaScript. I think it's just a way to enable the usage of technologies
normally used on the web, to create desktop applications. But technical
details aside, I'm worried about three things in particular.

1. Integration. Cross-platform software with a single unique interface
tends to look and feel quite out-of-place on some systems, making it
uncomfortable to use. But if handled well, this shouldn't be major.

2. Performance. I've read often enough that programs using Electron
tend to be slow and resource-heavy, also owing to that the program is
running in a dedicated “web browser” for itself. I find web-based
programs slower in general, so I imagine this could present a huge
issue, because Ring should really strive to be light-weight.

3. Freedom. Again, I trust that Ring will remain entirely free, but
I've read some doubts about the freedom of Chromium and Electron.
They've even been removed from the Parabola repositories. In that case,
it sure wouldn't be used for the official client; I just hope the
developers are well informed on the matter and have better plans ready.

But yes, better if someone who's actually quite familiar with the topic
at hand sheds some light for us. :)

Regards
// Tirifto

On Wed, 2017-06-21 at 14:13 -0300, Adonay Felipe Nogueira wrote:
> One of the issues that I raised about the usage of JS is exactly the
> correct licensing *and display/indication* of the freedoms of the
> software to the end-user.
> 
> Fortunatelly, I became aware that some people in the project are
> fighting the JavaScript trap --- assuming that the person who replied
> to
> me was really representing the GNU Ring project ---, so now it's just
> a
> matter of doing things right, instead of pulling hairs in order to
> understand how to present things correctly to the end-user --- which
> I
> often have to pull everytime I evaluate (or am asked to contribute
> to)
> some "open source" project that delivers client-side JavaScript.
> 
> Furthermore, if I'm not mistaken, Electron is commonly used to turn
> client-side JavaScript into some sort of "application", but still
> using the original scripts. It seems to be similar to what WebKit 2
> (or
> was it 3?) does.
> 
> Last but not less important: I might be wrong on the following: One
> of
> the issues of using JavaScript might be the loss of integration with,
> for example, vCard contact managers. But of course it's always better
> to
> ask a real expert instead of an occasional user and contributor (this
> is
> me). :)
> 
> 
> Respectfully, Adonay.

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