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Comment by the__alchemist | Hacker News Reader

Would there be interest in a cross-platform GUI written in C++ or Rust that uses HTML/CSS/JS as its layout and animation language, but runs natively on CPU/GPU without a browser layer?

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That would be cool, but wouldn't any (full) implementation of the HTML/CSS/JS spec end up as a browser anyways? Unless you narrow the scope and only support a subset of HTML.

Take that concept a bit further and you’ve basically gone down the same path as Flutter.

The thing is, HTML/CSS/JS is good as a layout paradigm but garbage as an actual GUI layout and language, because they were intended for hypertext documents, not applications.

If you're going to do that, maybe consider versions of those intended to work as a native GUI layer, but which are as easy to develop as the web.

> intended for hypertext documents, not applications

They’ve been evolving for so many years that the initial intent behind their design isn’t very relevant. Especially if you consider modern tooling, language versions, webgl, svg, canvas, and so much more.

This existed, it was called XUL, and it was glorious

If there is one tech that we need to bring back from the dead, it is XUL

(XUL is the GUI toolkit powering Firefox, or at least was until they ripped almost all of it out and replaced it with "modern" (gag) HTML+CSS UI)

Unsure if joking. XUL was awful.

Are you kidding? I loved working with it.

I think you're looking for https://www.areweguiyet.com/ click "webrenderer"

Could you elaborate on what you mean by "without a browser layer"? Would there still be a webview / blink etc. implementation?

I hope not. HTML/CSS were supposed to be used for "hyper text" and "magazine-like" content

Computers were supposed to be used for computing and printing solutions to polynomial equations. Is that really relevant to what computers are needed for anymore?

bad comparison. HTML encoding inherently is incompatible with dynamic presentation of data.

Not true considering how you don't need JavaScript to display several dynamic elements such as forms, checkboxes, details boxes, or videos. Also proven to be compatible through schemes like QML. It's kind of like saying a soft, meatlike human body is inherently incompatible with hard, metal electronics. True, it wasn't invented to do that, and problems arise from that interaction, but it doesn't mean they are incompatible.

isn't that what chrome is? either way QML is kind of what most people seem to be looking for and it's widely used

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