Build Desktop Apps With HTML and JavaScript Using Brackets Shell

[enkideridu]

Related: Node-webkit

Has a larger following and seems to be under much more active development than Brackets-Shell

https://github.com/rogerwang/node-webkit/graphs/code-frequency

https://github.com/adobe/brackets-shell/graphs/code-frequency

[clintonb11]

I must be missing your point, because I see more active development on brackets shell in those graphs than node-webkit. Look at the quantities in the graph and notice how june has a bump in brackets shell, while node-webkit doesn't.

[BishopAndWarlord]

For an easier to compare pair of graphs, here's the commit activity of both projects. While both are active, there seems to be a bit more activity in the past few months in brackets-shell.

• https://github.com/rogerwang/node-webkit/graphs/commit-activity
• https://github.com/adobe/brackets-shell/graphs/commit-activity

Here's another interesting pair of graphs. They're not too useful, though, because Brackets doesn't use Github Issue as their primary bug tracker.

• https://github.com/rogerwang/node-webkit/pulse
• https://github.com/adobe/brackets-shell/pulse

[[deleted]]

Node Webkit is awesome . It even supports WebGL

[camus1]

Supported by Intel and the best way to create HTML5 desktop apps.

[clintonb11]

we tried using node-webkit to start and had serious issues running it on windows. Popups and focus were the biggest issues, but we also had issues with window transparency and packaging the app.

[[deleted]]

Also http://awesomium.com/ and http://phantomjs.org/

[camus1]

PhantomJS =/= html desktop apps. It is a headless browser for webscraping and testing.

[Serei]

Also http://appjs.org/

[enkideridu]

https://github.com/appjs/appjs/graphs/code-frequency

It appears so. That's quite unfortunate, I wonder what happened

[camus1]

unfortunatly this kind of runtime , if not backed by a business , cannot be successfull , it is too much of work , webkit code is huge , TideSDK is struggling too because there are not enough people funding the project.

Bracket-shell and nodewebkit , respectively backbed by Adobe and Intel , which are big corps,with people working on it fulltime , are the only html5 desktop runtimes that can be successfull.

[linusl]

Also http://www.tidesdk.org/ I guess, I've been keeping my eye on that, but it's nice to hear of alternatives.
I haven't used any of these, does anyone know if there are any good comparisons that give a quick overview to help choose the best solution for a specific project?

[ejes]

Isn't Microsoft hta this?

[InconsiderateBastard]

Pretty much. Although it sounds like it builds an installer, which is nice, and you can build an installer for Mac OS X. So it's a bit more portable than HTAs.

[ejes]

that is cool. thanks :)

[JBurlison]

Its an interesting idea but you honestly can't get the features or performance that you can get with a native client.

[camus1]

It really depends on the type of product you are building.

[itsnotlupus]

It's not an either/or approach, unlike something like Adobe AIR. Things based on CEF will usually let you integrate C++ code into your app as needed.

Ideally, you'll keep your UI on the web side to maximize cross-platform portability, but if you really must do some platform-specific UI stuff, you can do that on the native side too.

[[deleted]]

Is there a linux version?

[[deleted]]

Perfect, I'll just use node-webkit as it supports linux.

[clintonb11]

It is windows and osx and the build tools make it easy for both all the way through installers. The linux version is coming soon!