Show HN: Svelte NodeGUI, a lightweight Electron alternative with native UI

This is confusing for me. I think such a framework is either 'platform agnostic' OR 'native'. Maybe the API is platform agnostic and the rendering is done natively?

Re: Show HN: Svelte NodeGUI, a lightweight Electron alternative with native UI

#5

Post by nguyenkien » Fri, Mar 05, 2021, 8:43 PM UTC

LinguaBrowse wrote: post #2

Maintainer here – Happy to answer any questions!

Off topic, any plan to make ot work with react native?

Re: Show HN: Svelte NodeGUI, a lightweight Electron alternative with native UI

#6

Post by glutamate » Fri, Mar 05, 2021, 8:44 PM UTC

LinguaBrowse wrote: post #2

Maintainer here – Happy to answer any questions!

There are other projects like this - But what would really set it apart would be mobile (iOS and Android) support. Can we do anything to support that happening?

Re: Show HN: Svelte NodeGUI, a lightweight Electron alternative with native UI

#7

Post by LinguaBrowse » Fri, Mar 05, 2021, 8:46 PM UTC

Gys wrote: post #4

> core set of platform agnostic native widgets This is confusing for me. I think such a framework is either 'platform agnostic' OR 'native'. Maybe the API is platform agnostic and the rendering is done natively?

That’s the case, yes – the UI runtime is Qt5 (which is rendered using low-level graphics APIs, so we class it as “native” – mostly in contrast to WebView-based UIs), and it’s the same API regardless of which platform you’re running on.

Re: Show HN: Svelte NodeGUI, a lightweight Electron alternative with native UI

#8

Post by dschuessler » Fri, Mar 05, 2021, 8:49 PM UTC

Gys wrote: post #4

> core set of platform agnostic native widgets This is confusing for me. I think such a framework is either 'platform agnostic' OR 'native'. Maybe the API is platform agnostic and the rendering is done natively?

Not necessarily. This expression probably refers to Qt's capability to use the subset of native widgets that are functionally equivalent across platforms. This blog post has some images of this feature in action: https://www.qt.io/blog/desktop-styling-with-qt-quick-control...

Re: Show HN: Svelte NodeGUI, a lightweight Electron alternative with native UI

#9

Post by LinguaBrowse » Fri, Mar 05, 2021, 8:51 PM UTC

boromi wrote: post #3

LinguaBrowse wrote: post #2

Maintainer here – Happy to answer any questions!

Any Win 10 fluent examples? Perhaps WinUI integation?

The parent project, NodeGUI, has some Windows screenshots and examples – I’m not familiar enough with Fluent or WinUI, but basically the UI runtime is Qt5, so integrating it into genuine Windows apps is out of scope (but may well be possible with the right expertise). I assume it would involve some kind of Qt-hosting view. I’m unsure whether Qt5 can host Windows UI components.

Edit: NodeGUI here: https://github.com/nodegui/nodegui

Re: Show HN: Svelte NodeGUI, a lightweight Electron alternative with native UI

#10

Post by danenania » Fri, Mar 05, 2021, 8:51 PM UTC

Looks really good! At first glance, this seems like probably the best Electron alternative I've seen posted on HN.

Apart from the consistent GUI layer, I think an underrated reason that many teams stick with Electron is the mature tooling for cross-platform builds and upgrades. It's pretty painful to DIY.

It looks like NodeGUI doesn't currently support cross-compilation--is that something that's on the roadmap? How about upgrade/auto-upgrade tooling? Code signing?