Signing back into the Community for the first time? You'll need to reset your password to access your account. Find out more.
Forum Discussion
System
4 years agoSuper Contributor
Electron
This discussion was created from comments split from: 1PW8 for macOS.
Former Member
4 years agoElectron applications will unfortunately never feel like they belong. There are tons of little details Apple has put a lot of time and effort into that make the Mac experience as great as it is. A lot of this comes for free when using Interface Builder or SwiftUI. A lot of it can't be replicated with Electron.
After using 1Password 8 here are some of my first impressions:
* Scrolling feels lifeless. It's like scrolling a web page. No elastic scrolling and it doesn't look and feel anyway near as smooth.
* Watchtower looks like a web page in a web view, which it basically is. I much prefer the 1Password 7 implementation where its all shown in a list with the ability to filter.
* Resizing text with cmd + and cmd - just isn't the way it should work in a Mac application except for web content in a browser. What's worse is that the UI elements are also resized. UI elements should respect the scaling settings.
* The settings window is modal and stuck inside the application window. It also has an X on the top right. Seriously? It can't even be moved. This is just the kind of crap that make Electron apps bad.
* Pull down menus can't extend past the boundaries of the application window. This is against the way they should work on a Mac.
* The amount of settings is very limited, but since this is a beta I'm going to assume that's a temporary issue.
* Search doesn't filter the list anymore. It suggests items them goes to them. Filtering is now an extra step.
* No ability to set keyboard shortcuts.
My overall impression is that yes it works, but it feels totally out of place on a Mac, while all the other 1Password versions I have used for the past 14 years have been some of the best Mac application experiences available. It feels like a typical electron application. It even looks like an electron application. I don't like it at all. I wish you would change your mind and scrap this Electron disaster. I don't think you will, but I hope 1Password 9 will go back to being a great application again.
It's sad to see so many apps switching to web based technologies lately, but to see an application made by developers who really seemed passionate about the Mac experience and to make a great application to contribute and elevate it move to Electron is just heartbreaking.