Short Bytes: GitHub has just released the version 1.0 of Electron, its free and open source application building platform. After two years of development, Electron 1.0 is here with new features and a Chrome extension Devtron to debug applications and make them better.
The development of Electron started about 2 years ago when GitHub launched its open source and hackable text editor Atom. Back then, Electron was known as Atom Shell and it was the framework used to build Atom.
With time, Electron has grown to become a well-known platform that’s being used by developers from all around the world to make different apps for email, chat, torrent clients, bots, and whatnot.
In its announcement post, GitHub mentions that Electron has been downloaded more than 1.2 million times over the past year.
The Electron 1.0 release has brought many changes and improvements to the platform. To help new developers make apps easily, Electron 1.0 packages a demo app that could be used a tour to know about its true capabilities.
GitHub has also released a Chrome extension Devtron that’s meant to inspect and debug apps written with the help of Electron.
Devtron consists of four main components —
- Require graph to visualize library dependecies in processes.
- IPC monitor to track and display communications in app.
- Event inspector to show registered events and listeners.
- App Linter to check for mistakes and bugs.
This free and open source tool is available for download at electron.atom.io. Go ahead and use it to convert your knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript into beautiful desktop applications.
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