I hope the following question is not too out of place on this mailing list:
JavaScript would really profit from a simple environment for writing desktop applications, especially for tasks that you would normally use shell scripts for. I like that such an environment would make it incredibly easy to add a cross-platform GUI. Can anyone recommend a good environment for writing desktop apps in JavaScript and HTML5? Requirements: - Read/write access to the local file system. - Download any file from the web (even from servers that don’t support CORS). - Ease of development: no extra build step before you can run your app. - Use HTML5 for the GUI. So far, I’ve looked at: 1. Adobe Air: needs the AIR runtime. 2. Google Chrome: comes pretty close: you can get read access to all files in a folder that you “upload” via a form; you can switch off cross-site restrictions via a flag; you can use the FileSystem API to write files and copy them back, out of the sandbox later. There are extensions, but those require a build step which makes it painful to develop them. 3. XULRunner: seems to require XUL. 4. Firefox Add-On: not geared towards desktop apps. 5. Node.js + GUI in a browser via a localhost URL: Cannot be packaged nicely, having to chose a port is problematic (usability, clashes). 6. Titanium Desktop: ready yet? (1) and (5) look like the most practical solutions that are currently available. Any other suggestions or experiences with the above solutions? -- Dr. Axel Rauschmayer [email protected] twitter.com/rauschma home: rauschma.de blog: 2ality.com _______________________________________________ es-discuss mailing list [email protected] https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/es-discuss
