> JWT, Swing, Web, Cordova, React/<web front-end> Native, Xamarin, Electron, Flutter and even quirky ones like Toga have all attempted to solve this problem, and
... and for the most part they have. You can write your app right now and the only thing you need to worry about is screen size. If you use bootstrap, even this is mostly solved. Your app is accessible on Windows, Linux and Mac; Chromebooks and Tablets; iPhones, Android and even the one Symbian user. Of course it's not perfect yet, there are edge cases and you cannot do everything, but let's not act like things have gotten worse.
> The only unifying thread has been that managers follow greedy algorithms and choose the lowest common denominator platforms as possible.
Yes, I agree. But for nearly every use case, it's good enough. Take HN as an example: Does it need anything more?
Of course, if you need access to specific hardware, you'll have to go deeper. But if you do not, it would simply be you taking the lowest common denominator. And I'd argue that the framework probably did a more thorough search.
I basically agree, with the caveat that I'd still prefer a world where our write-once-run-everywhere lowest common denominator at least required native widgets and an ability to integrate new platform-specific capabilities at the expense of writing a small amount of native code, rather than barfing up web UI/UX at users (e.g. the execrable MS Teams).
... and for the most part they have. You can write your app right now and the only thing you need to worry about is screen size. If you use bootstrap, even this is mostly solved. Your app is accessible on Windows, Linux and Mac; Chromebooks and Tablets; iPhones, Android and even the one Symbian user. Of course it's not perfect yet, there are edge cases and you cannot do everything, but let's not act like things have gotten worse.
> The only unifying thread has been that managers follow greedy algorithms and choose the lowest common denominator platforms as possible.
Yes, I agree. But for nearly every use case, it's good enough. Take HN as an example: Does it need anything more?
Of course, if you need access to specific hardware, you'll have to go deeper. But if you do not, it would simply be you taking the lowest common denominator. And I'd argue that the framework probably did a more thorough search.