You are reading a single comment by @MrTimcakes and its replies. Click here to read the full conversation.
  • Perhaps they are pushing "Progressive Web Apps" instead of "Chrome Apps", while this is totally uncool now, in the future it could be.
    "Progressive Web Apps" wouldn't be chrome dependent and would work on all OS's, as-long as they have a browser like Chrome or Opera. They would be fully usable without installing anything first, then if you return to use the service again it will ask if you'd like it in your app draw/home-screen.
    In that scenario using the Espruino IDE could be as simple as clicking a link (Provided WebUSB fix whatever it is they are doing) to use it the first time. Then if you use the IDE again it will prompt you to "Install" it (Sort of bookmark it to your home screen, but cache it to work off-line, and look more native)

    So in the short term, this sucks and its a pain in the ass for anyone who developed for Chrome. I first thought, "WTF? Won't this just make nobody make apps for ChromeOS? Why would they do that?" but after reading about these PWAs I think it will make developing "Native" apps far easier, only a little more work than the website itself. I was looking into the "Ionic Framework" to build some apps to communicate with the PuckJS when that drops, but if these "Service Workers" can do what they say, It could be far easier to make a website and make it a PWA, they can even do notifications, even when the app is closed.

    PWAs could be useful for PuckJS, if WebBluetooth is available it could let us share our partner apps with the community without having to pay the fee to get an app onto the market, then they could also work from PCs and Phones.

    I'd suggest checking this out, read it, then just go mad following links learning about everything it has to offer. My favorites are the PWA Service Workers, Push API and the Background Sync API.

    TL;DR: This sucks, its a pain. But PWAs are cool.

About

Avatar for MrTimcakes @MrTimcakes started