Introduction to Electron

What is Electron?

Electron is a fork of Google’s Chromium project that allows for an open source tool to create native(ish) applications. It uses the same web technologies from the Chrome browser and combines it with the diverse range of platforms Chrome is available on to create a cross-platform, easy to use development experience. It also opens up unlimited possibilities by using Node.js to provide thousands of packages with endless uses.

Why use Electron?

As stated previously, Electron allows for cross-platform builds and a large collection of packages. We can use it to take advantage of:

• The ability to run builds on the student’s Surface Books
• The built-in network tools to communicate easily, efficiently and quickly with the pi
• Web technologies that have been developed for online use
• NodeJS packages that allow for extended funtionality

Examples of Electron

Electron might be more common than you think. Don’t believe me? Check out some popular examples:

• Discord
• GitHub’s “Atom” text editor
• Skype
• GitHub’s “Desktop” Git client
• Axosoft’s “GitKraken” Git client
• Hyper Terminal
• WordPress
• Visual Studio Code
• Slack