AppJS project development has been discontinued, use node-webkit in the future

A little over a year ago (October 1, 2012) I posted on Habrahabr a blog post “ Node.js + Chromium = AppJS: one of the promising options for the second step in the evolution of the web developer ”, in which I cited AppJS as an example of such a combination of Node.js and Chromium engines , which allows each web developer, using technologies familiar to him (JavaScript, HTML, CSS), to become a developer of applications with a GUI (graphical user interface), combining the expressive capabilities of the Chromium browser and the power of the Node API.

The next day (October 2, 2012) in the blog entry “ Node.js + Chromium = node-webkit:an even more promising version of the second step in the evolution of the web developer ”I pointed out that AppJS is not the only or even not the best option: node-webkit is more convenient and has more API capabilities, more extensive documentation, and also provides the launch of ZIP-packed applications.

And what? - not even thirteen months passed before the success of node-webkit became obvious for AppJS developers as well. Today you can read on AppJS Twitter that the development of the AppJS project has been discontinued because node-webkit has achieved its goal: This is a well-deserved victory for the Intel Open Source Technology Center (in which node-webkit is being developed )



means the onset of such a long uniformity of GUI for Node, which can be compared with the effect of the end of the "browser war" in the Web at the time. This will save developers from the problem of choice, but the engine itself may run the risk of stagnation in the absence of competitors.

True, the absence of close competitors (in the field of “Node + Chromium”) still does not mean anything. On the horizon, more distant competitors are also visible, also aimed at creating GUI applications with web -based technologies - for example, applications from Firefox OS (which, as jeston told ustoday, they are able to work on Android, and not just on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X). And last month (in September 2013), Google introduced its own predecessor as well - these are Chrome Apps , which Yevgeny Zolotov viewed at Computerra under the loud heading “ Chrome against everyone: will Google and Microsoft oust the OS from Google? ".

Honestly, I like the Node API (in combination with the UI node-webkit API ) somewhat more than the Google Platform APIs and even more than WebAPI Firefox OS. Do you know why more? Because the Node API provideseasy loading of modules - and from this idea, like a seed, an extensive list of ready-made open-source modules created by third parties grew up , available for installation from the npm package warehouse and for subsequent use.

And what about Google applications and Firefox OS can be put next to this?