1. Quick Review of
'Desktop' / 'Native' Applications with Javascript

2. Agenda
 Why? Why Not?
 GLUEScript (http://gluescript.sourceforge.net)
 Seed (http://live.gnome.org/Seed)
 GJS (http://live.gnome.org/Gjs)
 Qt Script (http://doc.qt.nokia.com/latest/qtscript.html)
 QtQuick (http://qt.nokia.com/qtquick/)
 Topcube (https://github.com/creationix/topcube)
 Phones
 Summary

3. Why Desktop / Native in JS?
Javascript is...
...a fair choice as a language for building a UI
...embeddable in other languages, esp. C++
...also in your web-apps (code reuse???)
I am in search of something 'better' than web-
apps in certain problem domains

4. Why Not?
 Limited API ?
 Code reuse could be difficult
 Slow ?
 Package Hell ! :(
 ???

5. GLUEScript
 G)lueing L)ibraries U)sing E)cma-Script
 http://gluescript.sourceforge.net
 SpiderMonkey + POCO (C++) + wxWidgets
 Windows / C++ focused
 Building on Linux hard – I couldn't get there
 Mac ?
 Not worth it yet – could be great when they get to
apt-get install gluescript

6. Seed
 Javascript for GTK Apps using WebKit's JS core
 http://live.gnome.org/Seed
 GObjectIntrospection to bridge into GNOME
 Brittle on my machine – Seg-Faults, missing or
incompatible dependencies (probably Gtk)
 Demo

7. GJS
 Javascript for GTK using Spidermonkey
 http://live.gnome.org/Gjs
 GObjectIntrospection to bridge into GNOME
 Similar issues to Seed
 Demo

8. Qt Script
 Scripting Engine for Nokia's Qt framework
 http://doc.qt.nokia.com/latest/qtscript.html
 Typical scripting access to native Qt objects
 WebKit's JavascriptCore

9. Qt Quick
 Q)t UI C)reation K)it
 http://qt.nokia.com/qtquick/
 QML – a JS- / CSS- like language
 Desktop and 'Web' devices
 Access to the Qt Framework
 Can call JS files
 No Qt widgets???
 Demo

10. Top Cube
 Node.js binding to WebKitGtk
 https://github.com/creationix/topcube
 Use HTML5 / CSS3 to build a GUI for Node apps
 Demo

11. For Phone Apps
 IOS:
 Nimblekit (http://nimblekit.com) et al.
 Cross-platform
 Titanium (http://appcelerator.com)

12. Summary
 The GTK tools seem clunky and broken
 Qt options need more investigation
 Node.js with a GUI – might be cool
 Stick with C++, Python etc bindings for desktop
 Use Java, C++, Objective-C or HTML5 for Phones
 The search continues...