5 ms·

Electron for the Mac App Store

37 points by xwsaw 11y ago

Gys 11y ago
So you are 16 year old, already two years on HN and have an app in the Mac App Store that Apple qualified as 'You must be at least 17 years old to download this app'. Respect !!! [0] RESTer - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rester/id1013270103?ls=1&mt=12 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rester/id1013270103?ls=1&mt=...
- espadrine 11y ago
  Why does Apple impose that age limit? I clicked on the warning, but it redirected me to a generic ad for the Mac App Store.
scheda 11y ago
But... Why? This isn't explained at all in the article. Why would we need to run a 4 hour long build process? I could google it, sure. But the article should probably also mention that. Anyway, if anyone cares to enlighten me...
- xwsaw 11y ago
  I'm not completely sure why the build time is so long, but I have a few guesses. I think that Chromium is compiling for many many different platforms when it builds which would explain the huge required space. In addition it is compiling all of its dependencies along with it, instead of linking them like so many other libraries do. And the 3rd thing is that my computer is not that fast.
kitsunesoba 11y ago
Is there any reason why electron bundles an entire copy of Chromium when the system-bundled WebKit provides 98% of the exact same functionality? Using system WebKit instead would make the final binaries FAR smaller plus developers would be able to take advantage of all the energy efficiency goodness that Apple has baked in.
- pmelendez 11y ago
  I guess because otherwise they would have to have a different code base for Windows, Linux and OSX. They are probably relying on Chromium to solve the multiplatform aspect of this.
  - Klathmon 11y ago
    And probably because it's more "stable" in the sense that the bundled chromium won't change independent of the rest of the software. Plus storage is cheap and plentiful, and while webkit is pretty close to chromium, it's not identical and then they would need to support 2 separate "platforms", even if only for that 2% of differences.
- murukesh_s 11y ago
  Good idea. Hopefully someday electron will provide an optional feature where mac downloads can drop chromium and use the system webkit.

37 points by xwsaw 11y ago

Gys 11y ago

So you are 16 year old, already two years on HN and have an app in the Mac App Store that Apple qualified as 'You must be at least 17 years old to download this app'. Respect !!! [0] RESTer - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rester/id1013270103?ls=1&mt=12 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rester/id1013270103?ls=1&mt=...

espadrine 11y ago
Why does Apple impose that age limit? I clicked on the warning, but it redirected me to a generic ad for the Mac App Store.

scheda 11y ago

But... Why? This isn't explained at all in the article. Why would we need to run a 4 hour long build process? I could google it, sure. But the article should probably also mention that. Anyway, if anyone cares to enlighten me...

xwsaw 11y ago
I'm not completely sure why the build time is so long, but I have a few guesses. I think that Chromium is compiling for many many different platforms when it builds which would explain the huge required space. In addition it is compiling all of its dependencies along with it, instead of linking them like so many other libraries do. And the 3rd thing is that my computer is not that fast.

kitsunesoba 11y ago

Is there any reason why electron bundles an entire copy of Chromium when the system-bundled WebKit provides 98% of the exact same functionality? Using system WebKit instead would make the final binaries FAR smaller plus developers would be able to take advantage of all the energy efficiency goodness that Apple has baked in.

pmelendez 11y ago
I guess because otherwise they would have to have a different code base for Windows, Linux and OSX. They are probably relying on Chromium to solve the multiplatform aspect of this.
- Klathmon 11y ago
  And probably because it's more "stable" in the sense that the bundled chromium won't change independent of the rest of the software. Plus storage is cheap and plentiful, and while webkit is pretty close to chromium, it's not identical and then they would need to support 2 separate "platforms", even if only for that 2% of differences.
murukesh_s 11y ago
Good idea. Hopefully someday electron will provide an optional feature where mac downloads can drop chromium and use the system webkit.