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Comment by sblom | Hacker News Reader

As much as I love C# & XAML, I have trouble imagining why I would use this stack instead of writing JS/HTML5 directly.

It seems especially geared towards projects that have existing Silverlight codebases to convert to HTML5 applications.

I could also see a case made that XAML has an arguably much cleaner layout system and styling system than HTML, so some developers may prefer it to HTML.

I have trouble imagining why I would use this stack instead of writing JS/HTML5 directly

To develop cross-platform code (e.g. for desktop and web targets)?

But why not just write JS/HTML5 code which inherently works on web, and use something like Electron to make it work on desktop too?

C#/XAML probably works much better on the desktop than Electron. Each has it's pros and cons. Also, C# is a much better language than js.

That would mean that employers need to hire those who understand JS / HTML to build applications.

Stating that some language is better than another isn't really a good argument, most of it has to do with domain specific knowledge being leveraged to enter another market.

Mainly because the set of features in XAML-based frameworks is geared more towards apps and less towards documents, unlike HTML5; and probably also because some people much prefer C# over JS?

Because JS is ugly even if you put lipstick on it.

With Xamarin now being free you can target mobile with C#/XAML as well.

You might want to use it if you don't know JS/HTML5.

Seems like it would be much more valuable in the long run to just learn JS and HTML.

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