PWAs and Web Standards:
Balancing Flexibility and Opinion
Let’s face the fact: Web technologies on mobile devices (with access to native features) have a long way to go. As a convinced advocate of web development, I tried everything to find good solutions for my use cases. Since I primarily need native file system access and background processing, I’m reaching the limits of what’s possible here.
Furthermore, when I see more and more opinionated statements being made, the environment starts to become less and less fun. PWAs have a future and there are already many use cases for them. But it is precisely in this context that web standards are brought into focus so much that frameworks are generally put in a bad light.
Yes, today you hardly need any frameworks to do all the great things. I myself wrote about the countless possibilities that the web environment opens up to you today. And yet I accept every framework and whoever uses them. But not everyone seems to see it that way and insists on using mere standards.
For me, simply demanding web standards is just as bad as urging people to use a specific programming language. PWA is a way to use the web platform for apps. But how you do that should remain open to everyone. It’s often ending in annoying discussions and justifications.