Experiment—Electron app without a backend:
– It stores data in directories in local file system via File System Access API (*).
– Single window (for now).
– Directories are opened via drag & drop or via a file selection dialog.
– I persist the handle for the current directory in IndexedDB. Thus, my app remembers it across restarts.
I picked E. because it was easy to get started. W/o backend, switching to other tech is rel. uncomplicated.
I think there is room for a specialized tool:
– Turn web apps into native apps.
– Without providing any kind of backend functionality.
@rauschma Have you seen Tauri? It doesn't explicitly use the FileSystem API but as I recall it embeds a browser (Webkit) that be made to do whatever.
Granted its been a while since I caught up with the project so it may have changed/I could be misremembering, but its probably worth looking at.
@rauschma
If you only need native file system access then a Chrome #PWA might suffice. @christianliebel has published a number of videos about #ProjectFugu: https://youtu.be/43qZwGMzuQE?t=1963
@mcneely I was very close to using it (lots to like!). Two things swayed me in favor of Electron:
– The “getting started” tutorial made me productive immediately (without knowing Rust).
– I didn’t want to compile Rust.
With precompiled binaries, Tauri could probably easily support my use case.
I’m still undecided whether including a browser engine is a pro or a con.