Electrified

Recently, I wanted to prototype a simple desktop application to manage color palettes on Linux. So I fired up GNOME Builder, enjoyed his scaffolding feature for a new GTK+ Python application (still incomplete when compared to the previously mentioned tool, but far easier to use), and... as usual, I got lost on GTK+ Python documentation, trying to figure out how to obtain a proper ListItems for the initial menu using an (apparently) convenient GtkBuilder XML file.

After half an hour of frustation I decided to catch the opportunity and try something completely different: the well known Electron. Within another half an hour I had a boilerplate project to hack around, and in a few hours I got my very first (and hackish, and incomplete, and unstable, but still working and satisfying) prototype. You can find it here, but you are invited to desist in using it: it is just an experiment.

I like GTK+, I would like to avoid to run a fully featured and resources hungry web browser for such a stupid thing like the few coloured rectangles of my test application, I don't like limitations imposed by the technology (no way to get a desktop-wide color picker...), but I cannot deny that ability to use the familiar web tools (JS, CSS, HTML...) sky-rockets productivity, at least for a developers constrained to use them every day for work like me.

I will probably stick to Electron for a while, for my minor desktop-oriented small projects, wondering for a better and easier desktop stack for the beloved Linux.

(Teaser: the above mentioned application is called "Pale Colors". "Pale" wants to be an acronym. More coming soon sooner or later).