I think motif was fine for its time, but definitely not much better than OpenLook.
However, 30 years ago, developing a standard SunOS app with devGuide was the most enjoyable and productive programming I've ever experienced. Simply layout your GUI, link actions to methods, generate code, fill in the abstracted methods, compile and run. I didn't have to learn X or any other bloated low level graphics library.
Besides API features, it won't require downloading 0.5 GB of web browser in order to run.
Sure, you can make it smaller, but how many companies actually do this?
Sure, you can make it faster, but how many companies actually do this? Accountants and product managers don't care about speed or size -- that's a user problem.
Judging by the app sizes I download (and try to avoid), few companies really care about the user experience as long as the basic feature is checked off.
I worked at a company that provided an unnecessary and heavy FE framework (original devs didn't know what they were doing and "just got it out there"). Most of the target audience used used older PCs, and thus slower and memory limited. Some pages required multiple GB of browser memory. We've had this problem for decades because devs usually have well spec'd computers.
I happen to work on a product that is built for accountants. You would not believe how slow these apps are and all they do is display forms!
I believe customers do care about performance even in these B2B industries.
But it feels like they sink into some form of learned helplessness. We were interviewing our customers to learn how to build a better PDF viewer for them. Their biggest complaint had about Adobe Acrobat? Too slow!
That sounds interesting and worth a look. Although my experience with such cross platform bindings is that they tend to be leaky especially around system-dependent things like alarms and connectivity. But I’ll give it a try when I have a few hours to spend.
Not upvoting because the comment is flippant, but pre-1990 you had the Cold War and a somewhat realistic threat of
nuclear war, though I have no memories of ducking under my desk in 1970's NYC.
Generally, the best time to live in is the present, but there have been a lot of changes since Reagan that have made life harder and worse, e.g. the 24h news cycle exacerbated by a distinct lack of rational discourse.
The list of other factors is pretty long, but it pretty much comes down to how public and disproportionate the negativity and spin pervade society.
However, 30 years ago, developing a standard SunOS app with devGuide was the most enjoyable and productive programming I've ever experienced. Simply layout your GUI, link actions to methods, generate code, fill in the abstracted methods, compile and run. I didn't have to learn X or any other bloated low level graphics library.
AFAIK, nothing has been easier, especially XCode.
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