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Comment by devwastaken | Hacker News Reader

>The overhead is very minimal

You're still using JS, unless you're compiling modules for node.js.

I find node.js pretty fast. The V8 engine does compile it to native during the run time using a JIT compiler. While it is not quite up to the level of java, it is comparable. The major lacking is no thread support, but it is a boon in many cases as tracking down runtime bugs in multi threaded environments is sometimes very tough. Threads can be simulated using child processes to some extend, but its the only major drawback as far as i have encountered.

While nodejs is fast enough, Electron and apps built on it aren't fast. Electron is a mix of Chromium and nodejs. Chromium's rendering isn't meant to be used as desktop app. Especially for laptops. I have a MacBook pro mid 2010 with two GPUs. Integrated GPU uses less battery energy than discrete one. And every Chromium app switches GPU to discrete one and causes battery drain.

> Chromium's rendering isn't meant to be used as desktop app.

Yes, it is. That was pretty much the entire point of Google making Chrome (to make web apps have acceptable parity with desktop apps), and the entire premise of them building on Chrome with ChromeOS.

Now, it may not satisfy you in that role, but it absolutely is meant for it.

Good point. People are bashing Electron and chromium in general. But they do forget JVM based IDEs had the same problem. Rather than bashing Electron, if we can figure out to make it more leaner and faster, it would be much better.

"We"? You mean people that know C++ and low level native APIs, right? Which is decidedly not you. You are building a "hackable" "node.js" "npm" "app". The problem is, people who are indeed capable of making some improvements, including people on the V8 and WebKit teams themselves, do not believe in what these tools attempt to accomplish. (Listen to Don Melton's interviews on the subject, for example.)

I say "some improvements, as the problem cannot be solved completely; you'd understand why if you understood the underlying technology.

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