> It’s not for every site to try and push the envelope. And mimicking native can often lead to bad results. But to go from that and say that we shouldn’t try. That’s just sad.
The article says exactly that! It just says we shouldn't shoehorn native stuff into the web (e.g look at Synology's UI mimicking a nested desktop and windows).
> We shouldn’t try to compete with native apps in terms set by the native apps. Instead, we should concentrate on the unique web selling points: its reach, which, more or less by definition, encompasses all native platforms, URLs, which are fantastically useful and don’t work in a native environment, and its hassle-free quality.
Youtube example perfectly fits that bill.
Yet there is also a critical difference to be made between "the web" and "web technology": while the former is operated in a browser, platforms such as Electron leading to apps such as Atom or Slack that totally don't try to mimic the native platform they're running on, powering cross-platform applications that nonetheless do try hard to respect† the platform they're running on, achieving something Java's cross-platform WORA GUI toolkit thoroughly failed to††.
† there's a clear, visible boundary between the native system and the webtech app, but that boundary is easily crossed, whereas historically we've been trying to erase the boundary and pretend it doesn't exist, only to veer straight into an uncanny valley.
†† dare I say Firefox sits right there too, forever battling the tide of mimicking native components with each OS release, from UI elements appearance (vanishing scrollbar, input fields...) to behaviour (non-"sheet" modal windows on OS X), in subtle but aggravating ways, if only because it erodes the product's image and detracts development resources from other efforts.
The article says exactly that! It just says we shouldn't shoehorn native stuff into the web (e.g look at Synology's UI mimicking a nested desktop and windows).
> We shouldn’t try to compete with native apps in terms set by the native apps. Instead, we should concentrate on the unique web selling points: its reach, which, more or less by definition, encompasses all native platforms, URLs, which are fantastically useful and don’t work in a native environment, and its hassle-free quality.
Youtube example perfectly fits that bill.
Yet there is also a critical difference to be made between "the web" and "web technology": while the former is operated in a browser, platforms such as Electron leading to apps such as Atom or Slack that totally don't try to mimic the native platform they're running on, powering cross-platform applications that nonetheless do try hard to respect† the platform they're running on, achieving something Java's cross-platform WORA GUI toolkit thoroughly failed to††.
† there's a clear, visible boundary between the native system and the webtech app, but that boundary is easily crossed, whereas historically we've been trying to erase the boundary and pretend it doesn't exist, only to veer straight into an uncanny valley.
†† dare I say Firefox sits right there too, forever battling the tide of mimicking native components with each OS release, from UI elements appearance (vanishing scrollbar, input fields...) to behaviour (non-"sheet" modal windows on OS X), in subtle but aggravating ways, if only because it erodes the product's image and detracts development resources from other efforts.