&gt; The Javascript monoculture that exemplifies the modern web is perhaps the greatest thing holding back good cross-platform development.<p>I dunno, there was a time when javascript wasn&#x27;t the only game in town, and it sucked. ActiveX controls for hooking into native libraries, Java applets that assumed you had a JVM installed, subtle differences between javascript and jscript, VBS in the browser.. It was terrible, and the web is better now that they are largely a thing of the past.<p>I&#x27;m not a superfan of javascript, but building cross platform stuff in the browser seems easier now that you can count on its ubiquity and everyone is generally on board. Getting things done might be easier in walled gardens, but those gardens aren&#x27;t usually cross platform.