> If you go the handcrafted, lightweight and fast route, you're sacrificing a lot of features, possibly without even being aware of what you lose until it's too late.
And, just to amplify the point about accessibility, you may be blocking some people from using your app. So it's not entirely about what you lose. That's not so bad if you're developing a game. But the projects on this site include a programmer's editor and a debugger, both of which are completely inaccessible with a screen reader because, of course, they use a handmade GUI.
Handmade GUIs, frameworks drawing on canvas instead of using DOM, and abominations like VNC over web instead of normal desktop apps seem to be the new accessibility plague.
We're pretty much done with Flash and Java on the desktop, QT isn't that bad any more, accessibility-wise, but this kind of stuff is now becoming more and more popular.
I've heard of systems that promise you better utilization of your licensing resources, but what they do is put your precious 10 computers with some expensive software on the internet, letting any employee with a web browser book some time and access them via Web VNC. That's a brilliant way to turn a perfectly-accessible Windows app into something you can literally do nothing with.
Not everything needs to prioritize accessibility. This page is mostly tools for video games which typically have no accessibility. I think you may be bringing a pet concern into an area that isn't relevant.
What we, or at least I, want to ensure is that developers outside of the gaming context don't get too fired up by this manifesto, develop non-game-related tools in that spirit, and thereby block someone from doing their job because the tool is inaccessible.
Not everything is going to work for everyone from the very start. You don't need to stomp on every piece of software because it doesn't have niche features that you care about intensely. Pick your battles, each of these programs were created by a single person and are open source. They aren't government websites, they aren't even the only way do the things they do.
Pretty sure OP’s article is advocating completely removing that whole massive stack of trash of web tech and instead use technology designed for the particular computer they are running on.
And, just to amplify the point about accessibility, you may be blocking some people from using your app. So it's not entirely about what you lose. That's not so bad if you're developing a game. But the projects on this site include a programmer's editor and a debugger, both of which are completely inaccessible with a screen reader because, of course, they use a handmade GUI.