> HTML/CSS/JS is exceptionally good at building user
> interfaces.
Except they are not. Even with all the nice tools we have now: backbone.js, CoffeeScript, CSS preprocessors it is still a mess. Just take a look at all those struggling to get sane view management, event binding, notifications, callbacks:
it is years behind mature native frameworks which has very little cruft.
I really doubt all this mess can be solved with HTML, and I really doubt that web can now have any alternative to HTML.
Why is the idea to craft an app for each platform using native tools so scary? Were all those desktop apps using cross-platform toolkits successful? Or do they look alien everywhere?
I do like web. I love web. And that's why I don't like to see it turning into frankenweb.
With HTML-native-apps you get free cross-platform support, and you get to work within a very-well supported, constantly improving and performant framework. Furthermore, if you're building a SASS-type app (e.g. where your content is primarily hosted online) then using a WebView-type component will let you instantly "upgrade" your clients and you never have to worry about old versions of your app in the wild. You better have a damn good reason to give that up.
Please don't listen to this person, webdev is hard and you don't get anything for free. Actually, it depends if you prefer learning from painful experience or simple advice...
Why is the idea to craft an app for each platform using native tools so scary? Were all those desktop apps using cross-platform toolkits successful? Or do they look alien everywhere?
I do like web. I love web. And that's why I don't like to see it turning into frankenweb.