2024-03-11 11:58:01 +00:00
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# Electron
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[Electron](https://www.electronjs.org) is a cross-platform (Linux, Windows,
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macOS) way for creating desktop apps using TypeScript.
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Electron embeds Chromium and Node.js in the generated app's binary. The
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generated app thus consists of two separate processes - the _main_ process, and
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a _renderer_ process.
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2024-03-12 12:30:19 +00:00
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- The _main_ process is runs the embedded node. This process can deal with the
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host OS - it is conceptually like a `node` repl running on your machine. In our
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case, the TypeScript code (in the `src/` directory) gets transpiled by `tsc`
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into JavaScript in the `build/app/` directory, which gets bundled in the
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generated app's binary and is loaded by the node (main) process when the app
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starts.
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2024-03-11 12:22:35 +00:00
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2024-03-12 12:30:19 +00:00
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- The _renderer_ process is a regular web app that gets loaded into the embedded
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Chromium. When the main process starts, it creates a new "window" that shows
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this embedded Chromium. In our case, we build and bundle a static export of
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the [Photos web app](../web/README.md) in the generated app. This gets loaded
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by the embedded Chromium at runtime, acting as the app's UI.
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