HACKER Q&A
📣 lordgroff

What to use for cross-platform GUI (Linux / Android)


As the title asks: I have a specific application I need to provide; in the past I have used React Native in this space, but this time around in addition to a mobile target I also need to target Linux, so RN is out of the picture. It is a basic CRUD app that we're talking about, and on the other side of the picture it's exactly what I'd use Lazarus for in the past, but--mobile target.

As a note, React / JS / web are not my day jobs, but I have enough experience, and this type of development makes sense to me.

I have been evaluating Flutter, but for whatever reason it is not clicking with me at all. I might have to go that route and bite the bullet, but I'm wondering if there's any other technology I'm overlooking?



👤 PaulHoule
Electron or web-based.

I did a survey of what was out there for x-platform GUI toolkits (w/ Windows, Linux as primary targets and Android and MacOS as secondary) and most of them (tcl, gtk, ...) are unspeakably bad in terms of both developer and user experience.

The huge installer is annoyance but you get something that cares about font metrics, doesn't let you block the render thread, etc.


👤 h4waii
Cordova comes to mind after racking, but Flutter is the absolute first thing that sprang forward until I finished reading.