Everything that I have coded upto this point has been launched from Command Prompt or the IDE itself. I would like the ability to deploy an application such that launching it doesn't require a tutorial for novices. .exe, .apk, .app, ELF. Double-click and go.
I recall creating .exe files from Python as being restrictivly difficult. I was thinking C# and found .net/maui. It doesn't support linux, which I could maybe look past, but it also doesn't appear to support creating .exe files.
Java is more low level than I would like to deal with. Learning a new language that runs virtually could be the solution. I havn't done much investigating as this wouldn't be the ideal. (Edit: JVM requires an additional install, so that's not going to work.)
I don't have any experience with web developement, but it seems like a promising route none the less. It is not clear to me if I can create a local icon-launchable webpage that will run an application in your browser sans-server. Additionally, I am not sure how far my known languages will take me before I have to then learn CSS or whatever.
Thoughts?
Electron seems to be popular choice for cross-platform development in case you don't mind developing with JavaScript.
QT is another cross-platform framework that was around for a long time.
Specifically for .NET, there's MAUI (mobile-focused, no Linux), Avalonia UI, Eto Forms, AlterNET UI. The last one is desktop-only and still in beta.
Related
I have found that there are plenty of frameworks for browser plugins.
my first question:
which one of the following frameworks specified for plugins and which one is not specified for plugins:
FireBreath, OpenForge, Kango, BabelExt, Nixysa project, JUCE project, QtBrowserPlugin project .
my second question:
Is there another popular plugin's framework other than those mentioned?
my third question:
What is the main differences of these popular plugin's frameworks?
Indeed is there any comparison of these frameworks, the comparison could be in each of following terms:
usability (for a page as a NPAPI plug-in or for a browser as an
add-on extension),
simplicity (in developing),
speed (on execution),
extensibility (of developed add-on),
availability (in Windows 86x and 64x, Unix, Linux, mac and other
platforms and also mobile platforms specifically android, ios, ...),
flexibility (for new technologies),
reliability (in terms of security),
accessibility (open source or not),
portability (in Fire-fox, chrome, IE, Safari, Opera, ...),
applicability (in drawing, communicating, calling from external
server, threading, network accessing, etcetera),
stability (in changing the policies, for example in deprecating
NPAPI)
Also I have read Cross-Browser Extensions API? which I think it is about extension's framework (not plugin's framework)
I'll be honest -- this seems like something you should be able to answer with some google searching. I appreciate that you're at least trying to apply suggestions on how to better ask questions, though, so I'll respond on the few that I know something about.
FireBreath is a C++ framework for creating browser plugins, not extensions. It works as an NPAPI plugin for browsers supporting NPAPI plugins (previously this was all but IE, but Chrome dropped support for them this year and Firefox plans to at the end of 2016) or as an ActiveX control, giving it equivalent functionality to a browser plugin in Internet Explorer. FireBreath 2, which is working but poorly documented so far, changes the APIs from being synchronous between the browser and plugin to being asynchronous and adds an emulation layer to let them work with Google Chrome using Native Messaging. It's the most complete and up to date of the plugin frameworks, as far as I am aware. I am its primary author, so feel free to get your own confirmation of that.
Nixysa is a tool that takes definition files and outputs code for a NPAPI plugin. I haven't used it, so I can't tell you exactly what it's capabilities are. It hasn't been updated since 2012, when PPAPI support was added; this is unlikely to be useful, though, since PPAPI has changed significantly since then, and also since the only PPAPI plugins that can run without special command-line flags to chrome are ones specially blessed by the Chrome team.
JUCE is a GPL library with a commercial licence available which has some support for creating browser plugins. I have no idea as to how powerful it is these days; it seemed well written when I last looked at it, and takes a much more minimalistic approach than FireBreath does; FireBreath gives you a framework and tries to make everything Just Work, whereas JUCE seems (I could be wrong) to be more of a "provide the building blocks, but don't try to make everything look the same" type of thing.
QtBrowserPlugin is a defunct unmaintained project which at one time allowed creating browser plugins (probably just npapi, but not certain) with QT. Indications are that it probably doesn't work anymore.
I have no idea what the other projects are. If I were you, I'd try doing some research. Google is your friend.
Quite a while ago I used to use eclipse (or actually Aptana) for making websites. I never really got how it worked. After my laptop crashed I decided to install netbeans hoping it would be less complex, however it is still overwhelming. I know that working with a good IDE can help out a lot, but I just find it very complex (steep learning curve).
Does anybody know a few good tutorials to help me get started with this?
BTW I will be using it mostly for building websites (php, html, css) occasionally in a more abstract way (drupal) or using a framework (Zend). However I have done some Java programming and would like to start building some apps for android or maybe even learn c# or c++ for windows 8.
I would also like to start using subversion and if possible an integrated ftp client.
Help to get me started would really be appreciated.
Wow, thats really about 5 different questions. Firstly the benefit of using an IDE (for web development) is generally for refactoring tools, a good text editor, built in web previews and a built in development server like apache or glassfish. For your purposes eclipse and netbeans will work equally well, but I suppose netbeans has a slightly less steep learning curve but both are fairly straight forward. I'm going to give you a list of links that I think will help you:
Netbeans - http://netbeans.org/kb/docs/php/quickstart.html
Android - http://developer.android.com/training/index.html
Windows bassed svn client - http://tortoisesvn.net/
Free SVN repository hosting - https://www.assembla.com/home
Good FTP client - http://filezilla-project.org/
I don't think there are any combined svn and ftp clients, and it doesn't really make sense to have one either. A quick note on android development that may steer your choice of IDE, Android development is generally done within eclipse using the ADT plugin. Just a few thoughts...
It's very slick and cross browser/platform at the click of a button, which is leading non-technical types to conclude the entire engine is intrinsically better than what we use now. Is it simply that they've taken the time to implement all the per-browser/OS plugin versions of Unity WebPlayer and polish it, or is there anything deeper in the way the engine architecture is set up?
Unity takes scripts written in C#, UnityScript (based on JavaScript), or Boo (based on Python), and compiles them into mono assemblies. Those assemblies + the 3d models, sounds, and textures required by your game are compressed into a .unity3d file that is loaded by their browser plugin. Since almost all of the game's logic is in managed mono assemblies it runs cross platform with very few platform specific quirks.
They've recently rewritten their plugin detection and installation code so that it is very easy to drop a block of javascript into a web page that shows Unity content if the user has the plugin, or other content (image, flash, video) if they don't. I believe their plugin supports all A-class browsers on Mac and Windows, and the plugin can be installed without restarting the browser.
One advantage of the Unity engine is that you can take a lot of off-the-shelf managed assemblies and include them in your project and call them from Unity code. But you have to be aware that these assemblies can really bloat the size of the .unity3d file.
Another advantage is that you can easily write components that expose tunable parameters that can be modified by non-technical people.
And yet another advantage is that a well written project can be ported to/from iPhone, Standalone, Android, Web, etc. in under a day. I've personally done iPhone to Web by just modifying my input handler and changing texture compression.
One big disadvantage is that since the application is running managed code it is not too difficult for a curious or malicious person to decompile the assemblies into completely readable code. So you need to think about what someone could do with that info (cheat in multiplayer, write bots, falsify high scores, etc.). It is possible to obfuscate your assemblies, but it isn't trivial to add this step to your build process.
I am looking to speed up time to develop website layouts. So I am wondering if using DreamWeaver for layouts is useful - efficient. I am looking at purchasing this software, so, I had a few questions.
I am very comfortable coding HTML, CSS and JavaScript(jQuery) by hand in either PHPDesigner or Notepad++. Most of the time for layouts I use FireFox and Firebug to see results in real time, and then check if it works across different browsers.
I want to know the opinion of people who have worked on the front-end:
I feel code validation is important but not the end of the world(as my priorities) - I do however like to change my code often by hand. Does the output from this software let you do this?(compare to the html/css that micorsoft word vomits - Does this software do a similar thing?)
Is this software used as a primary design tool by people who can code by hand and does it actually improve efficiency? or is it just for newbies?
I understand the Adobe family of products work really well with each other but I am trying to understand is if DreamWeaver really deserves to be in the front-end workflow(if you are proficient coding by hand).
Once you work with HTML/CSS/Javascript enough, it isn't difficult to "code by hand" but it is important to remember that front-end developers also code with their eyes, as well. There is a lot going on up front that depends entirely on the code that runs on the client and you want to use an editor that helps you organize your code and, more importantly, gives you visibility into the challenges presented by complicated CSS and adhering to web standards.
If front-end coding was nothing more than pushing around angle brackets then notepad and repeatedly pressing F5 would be enough. A great web editor will present the structure of your code in a meaningful way and all of your HTML, CSS, and Javascript takes on a complete feel.
You want a professional editor that will allow you to:
Understand CSS inheritance
Run visual diagnostics
Debug across different browsers
Create modern layouts/designs that are faithfully represented
I haven't used Dreamweaver in a few years but, these days, I'm really enjoying Microsoft Expression Web. It is not the FrontPage mess of yesteryears - it is a serious tool for web design and I urge you to take a close look. The code is clean and smart and it certainly gives you the option of using its tools to build a site or you can code everything 100% by hand. Don't forget, the key is not deciding which editor is best for coding by hand. The thing you should be looking for is which editor makes you a better developer.
Regardless of whether or not you're a Microsoft, LAMP, or other platform person, Expression Web is a great tool for front-end developers.
I've been using Dreamweaver for a few years now. While I initially used some of it's code generators, these days I pretty much spend my time in the code widow coding by hand and viewing the output in the browser. The design window is nice for simple coding as it will build the html for you. However, I did have problems getting the right insertion point to edit it. For example, it might place my update before and end tag when I wanted it to be after it. That led my to switch to the coding window to be sure.
I do like the fact that it opens all included files specified in the file you originally opened. I also use it's site views to synchronize my changes to the production server. I'm sure I could take advantage of other features if I bother to learn them. I haven't used any tools besides FrontPage so I can't compare.
Best thing that happened to me was learing about Eclipse and then after about Aptana. I was using notepad++ for everything, but now im doing everything with eclipse and aptana as plugin for eclipse. Just my 2 cents. Oh and its free.
Primarily I do use Adobe Dreamweaver when working on websites. It is a pretty nice tool to use along with Adobe Photoshop for any graphic designs that I create.
Also, I use Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 for Web Application Development (i.e Console apps, Web Apps, Silverlight, etc.). VS is a little different from DW but its still a nice tool for development projects.
Alison, I looked a preview of Expression Web and may check it out. It may aid as an impressive tool for my front-end dvelopment work. I also tried Microsoft Expression Blend when designing Silverlight applications. It does remind you of how Expression Web looks and feels
Is Perl a good option for writing (possibly and partially) platform independent desktop applications? I know there are interesting widget libraries like GTK2 Perl and wxWidgets but I'm not familiar with development on Windows.
Is it possible to write a good application with Perl and those tools, maybe embedding everything needed to avoid asking the user to install external (and probably non conventional for many) libraries? Are there examples of this kind of apps around?
Sort of. You can certainly write Perl scripts that provide a Tk GUI that will work on any platform, and you can even package the libraries they need to work with PAR to put together an application that will run anywhere with an appropriate version of perl installed without requiring the end use to install a bunch of stuff from CPAN to get it to work.
However, an application that will run anywhere without requiring an existing perl installation (and it's probably not safe to assume the average Windows user will have perl) isn't really viable. One solution would be to distribute an "everywhere but Windows" version that simply uses PAR to include the necessary libraries, and a PAR::Packer-built version for Windows, which would be a fully-functional .exe including the perl interpreter and the libraries.
EDIT: following daotoad's response, it does appear that ActiveState's PerlApp can build cross-platform binaries for for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, and AIX; I haven't tried this but if it works as advertised it would seem to meet your requirements.
My employer uses ActiveState's PerlApp to produce executable versions of our apps with great success.
We tested PAR and PerlApp before selecting our packaging method. At that time, PerlApp had faster load times. Several versions of each tool have come and gone since then, so I would recommend testing with each before selecting a tool.
Executable packaging has been very effective for us.
There are a few portability issues issues with Perl, but if you pay attention to perlport, it's easy to avoid most issues. Our biggest problems are always with Win32. From time to time, some simple thing will require stupid, bizarre work-arounds or digging into Win32 API for a platform specific hack.
We have used both Wx and Tk guis.
Frozen Bubble is a well known and widely available app you can look at.
Check out PAR (available via CPAN) with respect to your bundling requirement.
Consider having a look at Padre for an example of a complex application written in perl using Wx.
So yes. All of your requirements are achievable, including portability.
I am working on the module XUL::Gui on CPAN, which uses Firefox to display cross platform gui apps from Perl. It is under development, but stable, and may be complete enough for your needs. You can build your gui in HTML and/or XUL (the Mozilla gui language that Firefox itself is written in), and then style everything with CSS. Let me know if you have any feature requests.