No, Docker is not right for this, mostly because Docker does not actually run on Mac; it runs on a Linux VM. MacOS doesn't really support containers. I would suggest looking at Homebrew.
containers on mac go through a VM Many, many developers use Docker on Mac without issue There is Docker Desktop and Colima you can use
Ask HN: Docker for a Mac App?
11–16 of 16 posts
Re: Ask HN: Docker for a Mac App?
#12Re: Ask HN: Docker for a Mac App?
#13This sounds like a horribly bloated stack. Might it be possible to compile the Python part into a lib that the Java app can access? And then package the Java app as a distributable, maybe with a JRE bundled?
Re: Ask HN: Docker for a Mac App?
#14This sounds like a horribly bloated stack. Might it be possible to compile the Python part into a lib that the Java app can access? And then package the Java app as a distributable, maybe with a JRE bundled?
Thanks solardev, I've managed to get Java out of the stack replacing it with a Python package. Still horrible but not bloated anymore :). Now I'm looking for options to package a Python app, that seems to be way easier, so many new things for me here
If your audience is developers (or similarly tech-savvy), that's probably enough to package it up as `brew install my_pdf_parser` for Macs (and Chocolatey for Windows) and have them take care of the Python deps.
If you're going for a mainstream desktop app though, that's a bit harder, but there's stuff like https://pyinstaller.org/en/stable/ (edit: as you already mentioned in another comment, lol)
Re: Ask HN: Docker for a Mac App?
#15For Python, you'd use something like Py2App or whatever the current thing is. And Py2Exe for Windows.
https://py2app.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
https://pypi.org/project/py2exe/
PS: I typed your question into GPT 4 verbatim and it pointed me to PyInstaller, as well.
Re: Ask HN: Docker for a Mac App?
#16As other comments have mentioned, this isn't what Docker is for. For Python, you'd use something like Py2App or whatever the current thing is. And Py2Exe for Windows. https://py2app.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ https://pypi.org/project/py2exe/ PS: I typed your question into GPT 4 verbatim and it pointed me to PyInstaller, as well. https://pyinstaller.org/en/stable/