For any kind of coding or writing work, I always prefer to work in files on the filesystem, and preferably text files. I always – always – wind up applying general text editing tools to the problem at some point. Might be grepping the source, putting it into source control, or writing a Python script to generate a chunk of code.
So for me, an app that can access the filesystem is mandatory.
Whether that’s a CLI app, a native-platform GUI app, or a GUI app written in some framework like Electron – I am less opinionated on that. It’s nice if there is a CLI option, though, because I know I can always make that work.
I prefer having a locally run app. I actually prefer apps that don’t require any installation/registry manipulation. I think they’re called portable apps? Just run an EXE file and you’re good to go from wherever it resides. If another C++ redistributable gets installed on my box, I’m going to have an aneurysm.
I use the Twine desktop app. I tend to avoid online only apps, even when they are well made because I just sleep better at night knowing I can work on my project at any time, anywhere and my data is in my hands. I’ve lost my online work before… and never again.
The nice thing about browser-based applications though is that they can be packaged up as an EXE in a Chrome wrapper by the developer (like Twine). This should be a standard practice for all browser apps.
I really hesitate to put my free time and energy into a personal project where I can’t work on it offline. Adventuron is the only tool I’ve used that breaks this rule, but I really wish it had a downloadable offline version.
Four years ago when our state shut down for Covid, I was called into an emergency tech conference to explain how our school would deliver education to students remotely. The trainer announced confidently “The students of our district have reliable High speed internet.”
I scratched my head and explained “I live in the same type of neighborhood as my students, and there are days I can’t get any internet at all.”
As way of explanation, at that time we relied on copper phone lines to deliver internet to the house, and the phone company has deliberately allowed these systems to fall into disrepair in rural areas. The digital divide is real. (We have since convinced Comcast to run their line to our house and service is improved)
If the target audience is less tech savvy or otherwise unlikely to already have one on their system, then a simple web server could be included in the installation. Many static site generators include one as standard, for example.
It really really is. My cousins all live in rural areas. While I get frequent outages, their internet trickles in (if at all) for quite a few of them. Whenever I design software or do gamedev, I have a list of people in mind for various accessibility reasons, and one of them is “could my cousins play/run this?”
I feel like the software industry as a whole is moving more and more toward a single, distributed computation resource, while individual computers are relegated more to UI clients. There is an increasing assumption that every user will be able to access any end point on a multi-service, networked system, and corporations need only plug the right combination together.
Nativly here. In my opinion, if you are into this hobby you should have the necessary progs to play with already. If you are just beginning this hobby for yourself you ought to accumulate them to be fully equipt.
Being spoiled with decent internet connectivity, I’d rather use a web tool than a downloadable one. I like having the Twine editor online, it’s really handy that I can just upload the WIP and work on it regardless of the computer I’m sitting at.
However, having the option to download or build the tool myself is critical even if I rarely do it (if the Adventuron homepage goes out and you were working on something, you’re toast, aren’t you?).
That did actually happen one time for a few days! We all panicked for a moment, but there is a downloadable version available somewhere - it’s just not the most up-to-date version.
Given the choice, I will always download a game instead of playing it online. Browsers are unreliable at the best of times and I’ve lost count of the times I’ve lost all progress on a game because of a browser crash, my accidentally clicking the wrong thing and being taken to a different website or any one of a hundred other reasons. I’ve also run into problems because my browser isn’t the one the game was tested in or it was but it’s recently been updated so things don’t work exactly the way they should. So I’ll always play a game natively instead of in a browser. In fact, most of the time if the game can’t be downloaded, I won’t play it full stop.