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Show HN: MetalShell – Build GUIs for JVM Apps with HTML, CSS and JavaScript

3 points| struppi | 6 years ago |github.com

7 comments

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zubnix|6 years ago

How is this different (functionally) than say https://www.dukescript.com/ ?

struppi|6 years ago

I think the biggest difference is that I am using the chromium embedded framework (java-cef), so you get e.g. the chrome debugger for debugging your HTML/CSS/JavaScript.

My goal was to use java-cef, but hide all the weirdness.

Also, there's no pre-defined data binding, so a bit less opinionated in this case.

duiker101|6 years ago

For one, I guess, the price tag.

gitgud|6 years ago

Nice, I especially appreciate all the examples in the Readme.

Would this be anymore performant than electron? Or smaller binary sizes? etc...

struppi|6 years ago

Thanks.

More performant? Maybe - at least multithreading, fork/join, ... would be easier.

Smaller binaries? No, probably even larger, since the chromium embedded framework (CEF) is biiig. But it would probably be possible to add other HTML renderers later (i.e. CEF during development b/c of the excellent debugging features, JavaFX WebView later).

It would make most sense when you either need multi-threading or have existing Java libraries/code you want to re-use or have mostly Java developers...

IloveHN84|6 years ago

The point Is: how do you redistribute them to other platforms (ARM)? And what about Windows/Linux/MacOS compatibility?

struppi|6 years ago

As-is, it would only work on platforms where java-cef (the chromium embedded framework) works.

But one could probably add other HTML renderers too (Android, JavaFX WebView, ...).