Electron (software framework)

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For the article about the subatomic particle, see Electron.
For other uses, see Electron (disambiguation).

Electron
Electron Software Framework Logo.svg
Electron 16.0.7 screenshot.png
Original author(s)GitHub
Developer(s)OpenJS Foundation
Initial release15 July 2013; 8 years ago (2013-07-15)[1]
Stable release
16.0.7[2] Edit this on Wikidata / 11 January 2022; 13 days ago (11 January 2022)
Preview release
17.0.0-beta.3[3] Edit this on Wikidata / 11 January 2022; 13 days ago (11 January 2022)
Repository
Written inC++, JavaScript, Objective-C++, Python and Objective-C
Operating systemLinux, macOS and Windows
PlatformIA-32, x86-64, ARM
LicenseMIT License[4]
Websitewww.electronjs.org Edit this at Wikidata

Electron (formerly known as Atom Shell[5]) is a free and open-source software framework developed and maintained by GitHub.[6] It allows for the development of desktop GUI applications using web technologies: it combines the Chromium rendering engine and the Node.js runtime.[7] It was originally built for Atom.[5] Electron is the main GUI framework behind several open-source projects including Atom, GitHub Desktop, Light Table,[8] Visual Studio Code, Evernote,[9] WordPress Desktop,[10] and Eclipse Theia.[11]

Architecture[]

Electron applications comprise multiple processes. There is the "main" process and several "renderer" processes. The main process runs the application logic, and can then launch multiple renderer processes, rendering the windows that appear on a user's screen rendering HTML and CSS.

Both the main and renderer processes can run with Node.js integration if enabled.

Most of Electron's APIs are written in C++ or Objective-C and then exposed directly to the application code through JavaScript bindings.[12]

Criticism[]

Electron applications have been criticized for incurring significant overhead when compared with native applications with similar functionality. Applications built with Electron can take up more storage and RAM, and may run at less speed than a similar app built with technologies native to the operating system.[13][14][15][16]

Versions[]

In September of 2021, Electron moved to an 8 week release cycle between major versions to match the release cycle of Chromium Extended Stable and to comply with a new requirement from the Microsoft Store that requires browser-based apps to be within 2 major versions of the latest release of the browser engine.[17]

Release Status Release date Chromium version Node.js version Module version N-API version ICU version
Current stable version: v16.x.y Current 2021-11-15[18] 96 16.9 99 ? ?
Older version, yet still maintained: v15.x.y Active 2021-09-21 94 16.5 98 ? ?
Older version, yet still maintained: v14.x.y Active 2021-08-30 92 14.17 89 8 69.1
Older version, yet still maintained: v13.x.y Active 2021-05-25 91 14.16 89 7 68.1
Old version, no longer maintained: v12.0.x End-of-Life 2021-03-02 89 14.16 87 7 68.1
Old version, no longer maintained: v11.4.x End-of-Life 2020-11-16 87 12.18 85 5 65.1
Old version, no longer maintained: v10.4.x End-of-Life 2020-08-25 85 12.16 82 5 65.1
Old version, no longer maintained: v9.4.x End-of-Life 2020-05-18 83 12.14 80 5 65.1
Old version, no longer maintained: v8.3.x End-of-Life 2020-02-04 80 12.13 76 5 65.1
Old version, no longer maintained: v7.3.x End-of-Life 2019-10-22 78 12.8 75 4 64.2
Old version, no longer maintained: v6.1.x End-of-Life 2019-07-29 76 12.4 73 4 64.2
Old version, no longer maintained: v5.1.x End-of-Life 2019-04-24 73 12.0 70 4 63.1
Old version, no longer maintained: v4.2.x End-of-Life 2018-12-20 69 10.11 69 3 62.2
Old version, no longer maintained: v3.1.x End-of-Life 2018-09-18 66 10.2 64 3 ?
Old version, no longer maintained: v2.0.x End-of-Life 2018-05-01 61 8.9 57 ? ?
Old version, no longer maintained: v1.8.x End-of-Life 2017-12-12 59 8.2 57 ? ?

Software using Electron[]

A number of desktop applications are built with Electron including:[19]


See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "electron/electron". GitHub. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  2. ^ https://github.com/electron/electron/releases/tag/v16.0.7.
  3. ^ https://github.com/electron/electron/releases/tag/v17.0.0-beta.3.
  4. ^ "electron/LICENSE at master". GitHub. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  5. ^ a b Sawicki, Kevin (23 April 2015). "Atom Shell is now Electron". Electron. Retrieved 6 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ^ "electron/electron". GitHub. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  7. ^ "Electron Internals: Using Node as a Library". electronjs.org. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  8. ^ Horner, Gabriel (10 December 2015). "Light Table 0.8.0". lighttable.com. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  9. ^ Small, Ian (7 October 2020). "Introducing the New Evernote for Windows and Mac". I Programmer. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  10. ^ "GitHub Repository". GitHub. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  11. ^ "Theia - Cloud and Desktop IDE Platform". theia-ide.org. Retrieved 31 December 2021.
  12. ^ "From native to JavaScript in Electron | Electron Blog". electronjs.org. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  13. ^ "Electron considered harmful". Drew DeVault's Blog. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
  14. ^ Beyer, Casper. "Electron is Cancer". Commit Log. Medium. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
  15. ^ "Electron is flash for the desktop". Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  16. ^ RS, Sudhakar (8 October 2020). "electron-alternatives: Few Cross platform desktop GUI App development options are listed here". GitHub.
  17. ^ https://www.electronjs.org/blog/8-week-cadence
  18. ^ https://github.com/electron/electron/releases/tag/v16.0.0
  19. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Apps". Electron. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  20. ^ Sawicki, Kevin (23 April 2015). "Atom Shell is now Electron". Electron. Archived from the original on 16 October 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  21. ^ "CrashPlan for Small Business version 6.7". Code42 CrashPlan Release Notes. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  22. ^ "Etcher on GitHub". GitHub. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  23. ^ "Theia - Cloud and Desktop IDE Platform". theia-ide.org. Retrieved 31 December 2021.
  24. ^ Haack, Phil (16 May 2017). "Announcing Git Integration for Atom and GitHub Desktop Beta". The GitHub Blog. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  25. ^ msdmaguire. "How Microsoft Teams uses memory - Microsoft Teams". docs.microsoft.com. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  26. ^ "Joplin - Apps - Electron".
  27. ^ "Building hybrid applications with Electron". Several People Are Coding. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
  28. ^ "symphonyoss/SymphonyElectron". GitHub. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
  29. ^ Bright, Peter (29 April 2015). "Microsoft's new Code editor is built on Google's Chromium". Ars Technica. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  30. ^ "Open Source project". GitHub.
  31. ^ "wireapp/wire-desktop". GitHub. Retrieved 8 May 2018.

External links[]


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