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Comment by rbinv | Hacker News Reader

Office for Windows (WIN32) will be an Electron app? I have no words.

edit, since there seems to be some confusion: I am explicitly talking about the WIN32 variant, which he confirmed to be based on Electron.

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    "No they are not electron apps. They are compiled to native code.
    
    It's now finally one toolchain(#webpack)
    It's one codebase and it compiles to:
    
    Web
    Android
    IOS
    MacOS
    UWP
    WIN32 (only one that uses electron)
    7:52 AM · Jun 13, 2018"

https://mobile.twitter.com/TheLarkInn/status/100676113439583...

He says so in another tweet/reply.

link?

See above (last line).

comment seems to be saying -- in modern windows (UWP) it'll be using native code, but microsoft is taking the easy path on win32. i guess some people are surprised that despite years of telling people that win32 is going away microsoft is finally making good. but I am not, I'm more excited than anything at another good sign that Microsoft is finally done with legacy windows.

> Microsoft is finally done with legacy windows.

It's kind of sad; all the good stuff I use is basically legacy Windows. None of what Microsoft has done since Windows 7 has appealed to me.

Yeah, it's all been less functional and slower. That's the future of computing now.

Hell, I hate all my old software just working too. I'd much rather get half-baked versions of everything that don't have all the same features.

I’m an engineer in Office. This is not the case. The desktop app’s are fully native, and will remain so. They utilize React Native for a few components, but otherwise are written in C & C++.

Thanks for clarifying this nonsense.

So, what the hell was this guy tweeting about?

In my experience most people in Microsoft have only a vague idea of what other teams are doing, even when none of it is really secret. If Office is starting to adopt React Native for some of its new UI components, and meanwhile there's a lot of work happening on the Office 365 web portal and Office web apps, internal telephone rumor circulation can morph that into "all of Office is being rewritten in javascript"

Hmm.

Whoever makes the first neural model capable of returning interesting insights after being installed in the telephone switchboard/backbone is going to have a most unique life.

Edit: Just realized ISPs have probably been trying to do this for years. I'm talking about the first individual. It'll probably happen routinely in 20 years or so.

I was referring to the metaphorical game of "telephone", not literal telephones.

Nobody who truly participated in or contributed to the "complete" rewriting of Office in JS would be capable of expressing the positive emotions the subject of OP does...their soul would have been drained of the capacity to express joy long before the project would be completed. The tone smacks of the delusional cluelessness that MSFT's culture seems to uniquely foster.

Office for Windows has components written in react-native? Really? Any examples?

The whole thread and all later clarifications just look like a guy spewing random stuff loosely related with what he's working on at Microsoft. There's not much meaningful information to take from there.

Nah it's fine, just upgrade to Win10 and buy your license through the windows store! UWP isn't using electron!

What's that? Win32 a second class citizen? Never!

Isn't it about time? The "32" ought to be a clue...

So? When were the POSIX APIs designed? Probably before 16 bit was common. By that logic we should migrate off that as well.

Yeah, probably.

In all fairness there are a fair number of POSIX APIs that are dangerous and need to be deprecated and removed.

UWP doesn't run on win7. If you think getting rid of WinXP was hard, wait to see the phasing out of Win7. If you write for the desktop, chances are you are writing an internal app. Lots of large enterprises (including my present employer) just switched to Win7. Win10 is a looong way ahead. A significant part of your userbase won't be able to touch a UWP app for a long time.

I wish Win10 never happened, but: How does your employer aquire hardware for win7? We have trouble buying Thinkpads that still run win7.

It was a very smart move of MS to kill newer chipsets :-(

If they hadn't done that, win10 would have completely tanked

From what I understand they are using React Native.

I too find it hard to believe they would drop the native Windows and OSX versions of Outlook, Word, Excel, for apps written in React Native. But Microsoft has offered many surprises lately...

We're talking 50M SLOC and 20+ years of development for native platforms. I highly doubt that they will let that go in favor of an JS app.

Outlook on the web is certainly better than the application on windows... word won't be too hard. Now excel, that's the one I'd be surprised to see.

Try doing a mail merge in owa

If they can charge for a subscription they will let all of that go in favor of an JS app.

Not an electron app

https://mobile.twitter.com/TheLarkInn/status/100677077815354...

Not totally true because:

> WIN32 (only one that uses electron)

which happens to be the version most people use.

This isn't Office for Windows the suite. WIN32 is a platform they're not really supporting any more, I think they're basically saying if you're on WIN32 then you're getting the web version in future, not the real deal.

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