mirrors/electron
2
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull requests Projects Releases Packages 1 Wiki Activity Actions

Standardize atom vs nw

Browse source
This commit is contained in:
Jessica Lord 2015-08-30 22:30:01 -07:00
parent 874367e2c5
commit 1e5b7af490
1 changed files with 13 additions and 14 deletions
Show stats Download patch file Download diff file Expand all files Collapse all files

27
docs/development/atom-shell-vs-node-webkit.md
View file

@ -1,18 +1,18 @@
# Technical differences to NW.js (formerly node-webkit)
# Technical Differences Between Electron and NW.js (formerly node-webkit)
__Note: Electron was previously named Atom Shell.__
Like NW.js, Electron provides a platform to write desktop applications
with JavaScript and HTML and has Node integration to grant access to low level
system in web pages.
with JavaScript and HTML and has Node integration to grant access to the low
level system from web pages.
But there are also fundamental differences between the two projects that make
Electron a completely separate product from NW.js:
__1. Entry of application__
__1. Entry of Application__
In NW.js, the main entry of an application is a web page. You specify a
main page in the `package.json` and it is opened in a browser window as
In NW.js the main entry point of an application is a web page. You specify a
main page URL in the `package.json` and it is opened in a browser window as
the application's main window.
In Electron, the entry point is a JavaScript script. Instead of
@ -23,19 +23,18 @@ to decide when to quit the application.
Electron works more like the Node.js runtime. Electron's APIs are lower level
so you can use it for browser testing in place of [PhantomJS](http://phantomjs.org/).
__2. Build system__
__2. Build System__
In order to avoid the complexity of building the whole Chromium, Electron uses
[libchromiumcontent](https://github.com/brightray/libchromiumcontent) to access
Chromium's Content API. libchromiumcontent is a single, shared library that
includes the Chromium Content module and all its dependencies. Users don't
In order to avoid the complexity of building all of Chromium, Electron uses [`libchromiumcontent`](https://github.com/brightray/libchromiumcontent) to access
Chromium's Content API. `libchromiumcontent` is a single shared library that
includes the Chromium Content module and all of its dependencies. Users don't
need a powerful machine to build Electron.
__3. Node integration__
__3. Node Integration__
In NW.js, the Node integration in web pages requires patching Chromium to
work, while in Electron we chose a different way to integrate libuv loop with
each platform's message loop to avoid hacking Chromium. See the
work, while in Electron we chose a different way to integrate the libuv loop
with each platform's message loop to avoid hacking Chromium. See the
[`node_bindings`](../../atom/common/) code for how that was done.
__4. Multi-context__