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Electron v5.0 Timeline
- zamadatix 8y agoAs someone who has only ever created some basic quick apps in Electron and NW.js why is it Electron sees a much slower release cadence? Is there a different scope of integration with the underlying components?
- shagie 8y agoFrom the article: > In the last half of 2018, our top priority was releasing faster and catching up closer to Chromium. We succeeded by sticking to a predetermined timeline. Electron 3.0.0 and 4.0.0 were released in a 2-3 month timeline for each release. We are optimistic about continuing that pace in releasing 5.0.0 and beyond. With a major Electron release approximately every quarter, we're now keeping pace with Chromium's release cadence. Getting ahead of Chromium stable release is always a goal for us and we are taking steps towards that.
- zamadatix 8y agoI'm not sure this answers the question I asked. I'm already aware Electron has been trying to achieve release cadence I was curious as to why they've been having trouble doing so vs e.g. NW.js
- ravedave5 8y agoChromium changes a lot. One of my teams tried integrating it directly and couldn't keep up with the API change. We went with a 3rd party library that wraps it to shield us from it.
- ttoinou 8y agoWhich 3rd party library ? :)
- windom 8y agoI'm very curious, which library did you end up using?
- ravedave5 8y agoJxBrowser. Went from a native c implementation and wrapper to java based. Application size went up (by a lot) but it's far easier to get things done when you don't have to find someone who knows objective C in a java shop.
- yodon 8y agoLooking over the donors page, I'm pretty amazed at slack's absence. Ditto for Microsoft Teams. Way to give back to the community.
- no_wizard 8y agoTo be fair, Microsoft now pays the bills for the entire company, since electron is Githubs project as I have come to understand it
- basil-rash 8y agoWhich makes me wonder: where do the donations actually go? It looks like the total amount is less than 15k, so everything donated is very easily overshadowed by MSFT's contributions, and I don't see any hints at a payment-for-contributions program on the electron github.
- jointhefuture 8y agoThe donations go by paying the salaries of most of the top electron devs since they work for github which is owned by Microsoft.
- basil-rash 8y agoThe donations do not come remotely close to paying even a single person's salary.
- Cthulhu_ 8y agoBeer money?
- briandear 8y agoI’d rather Slack just stop using electron and write a real native app; they can certainly afford it. Meanwhile, Slack remains an incredible resource hog.
- mishurov 8y agoThis cancerous project should be shut down and developers using it should be laid off.
- de_watcher 8y agoWe won't be able to easily tell good developers from the bad ones then.
- kethinov 8y agoDoes anyone know if the idea of creating a runtime mode for Electron is on the roadmap? (A runtime mode would be allowing multiple apps to share one installed Electron dependency rather than bundling Electron with every Electron app.)
- stabbles 8y agoYes, that would be very useful to have. Some runtime, or some central application, so that the user just has to download some HTML, CSS and Javascript -- not a complete copy of Electron each time. And if this application could be used to browse the internet when the user enters a URL, that would be useful too! Game changer!
- aserafini 8y agoYes great idea! The different applications (or URLs) could be opened simultaneously and displayed as ‘tabs’ for the user to manage in the central application.
- dewiz 8y agoThat would also allow to call one application from another, just assigning some reserved namespace or domain and appending the feature at the end, kind of a path. Exciting times!
- arbie 8y agoHow would one remember a collection of these namespaces or the current place within one location? Analogous to physical paper, could we repurpose the concept of a "bookmark"?
- barrystaes 8y agoTo avoid having to update these files on your pc, these could be served by a "server" on the internet. We would have to run cables around the earth so everyone can benefit.
- theredbox 8y agoUsing Electron is a travesty. Why not something like "sciter" ?
- StellarTabi 8y agoSurely you could make a more positive contribution than mindlessly bashing the topic and assume anyone has heard of the random drive-by name drop?
- theredbox 8y agoPeople can surely utfg what sciter is in the context of a gui solution ?
- slezyr 8y agoBecause it costs at least $1000 for year?
- theredbox 8y agoYes good software costs money. Whatever is wet.
- nm2259 8y agoI've seen sciter come up in discussion on quite a few threads related to Electron and other web browser embedding systems, but I've never seen a good answer for "why not sciter", so I'll try to put some points out here: 1. Electron is open source, sciter is free as in beer only. 2. Electron implements the exact same javascript as the web, sciter implements its own js-like language. Harder to find developers with experience, and harder move your app from sciter to some other engine down the line. 3. Electron implements the exact same html/css as the web, sciter implements html/css from a few years back plus its own proprietary bolt-ons. Same problems as #2.
- paxys 8y agoMaybe because no one has ever heard of it?
- justanother- 8y agoElectron is abomination of software development an a laugh into faces of computer science from need for masses of incompetent people doing frankenstain software. There is nothing to be excited about - it is just another step back into past.
- tonyedgecombe 8y agoThose poor Electron devs, they will be pushing that Sisyphean boulder up the hill forever. It reminds me of the thesis of Joel Spolsky's essay Fire and Motion. https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/01/06/fire-and-motion/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/01/06/fire-and-motion/
- cdnsteve 8y agoWhat is the upgrade process like for existing applications built on the Electron framework? Is it well documented and a first consideration or are you thrown to the wind? Will 4 be able to move to 5 or are we talking about rewrites?
- WorldMaker 8y agoIt's pretty well documented. If you are just using Electron "off the shelf" to host your web app it's generally `npm install` the updated binary, test, and deploy. Sometimes an Electron-only API changes, but that's pretty rare and most of them aren't "mission critical" if they break. That's always documented well in the release notes and the API and Electron for the most part seems to follow a "deprecate for a version ahead" pattern that you should have plenty of warning. If you are using native libraries is where things get complicated. At that point you are likely building your own Electron binary, and need to find updated versions of your libraries that support the upgrade NodeJS and/or Chromium versions. Most of that is the same documentation whether or not Electron was in the project, check the related documentation for the appropriate NodeJS and/or Chromium versions, rebuild as needed using the usual tools.
- cdnsteve 8y agoGreat response, thank you!
- glenrivard 8y agoThink Flutter will take the space Electron is used. Both are based on Skia but Flutter is a lot more light weight and going to be far more secure.