[erlang-questions] GUI development with Erlang

Grzegorz Junka list1@REDACTED
Thu Dec 7 21:10:50 CET 2017


Electron is mainly an executable, which is a customized Chrome browser. 
The UI itself is only as heavy as a typical HTML/JavaScript page. See 
here for an overview:

https://electronjs.org/docs/tutorial/quick-start

It's very similar to Erlang. In Erlang you have the VM and OTP. Your 
application is lightweight but when you create a distribution you have 
to package the VM, libraries and your application into it. It's the same 
with Electron.

The Electron executable is loading and executing your application, which 
is a web-based JavaScript application. That application could connect to 
your running Erlang VM like any other web-based application running 
locally in a browser.

GrzegorzJ


On 07/12/2017 17:46, Thomas Elsgaard wrote:
> Hello World is 115 MB ;-)
> tor. 7. dec. 2017 kl. 16.10 skrev Joe Armstrong <erlang@REDACTED 
> <mailto:erlang@REDACTED>>:
>
>     How big are the applications built with Electron?
>
>     /Joe
>
>
>
>     On Thu, Dec 7, 2017 at 3:32 PM, Zachary Kessin <zkessin@REDACTED
>     <mailto:zkessin@REDACTED>> wrote:
>
>         I was thinking of something like Electron
>         https://electronjs.org/ with an Erlang backend.
>
>         Mind I have no idea how to actually build that
>
>         Zach
>>
>         On Thu, Dec 7, 2017 at 2:50 PM, Joe Armstrong
>         <erlang@REDACTED <mailto:erlang@REDACTED>> wrote:
>
>             If you want something that just works and is reasonably
>             simple to implement
>             Browser based GUI's are pretty good.
>
>             The combination of web sockets + SVG/Canavas/DOM
>             manipulation in JS
>             is pretty easy to setup and loads of people understand
>             JS/Browser things.
>
>             Stand-alone outside the browser is tricky.
>
>             TCL/Tk is really easy to get going and interface (yes it's
>             old but works well)
>
>             Java Swing is what it is - and if you're good at Java
>             might be an alternative
>             but you'd have to interface it to Erlang.
>
>             QT is brilliant but you'd need to write the GUI in C++ and
>             interface it to Erlang
>
>             WxWidgets is actually pretty good but has a steep learning
>             curve (a cliff) -
>             I did actually manage to build some interfaces with it and
>             concluded that
>             it was pretty good but that it needed a *lot* of examples
>             and getting started
>             tutorials.
>
>             Cheers
>
>             /Joe
>
>
>             On Wed, Dec 6, 2017 at 12:43 PM, Alan Gingras
>             <alangingras@REDACTED <mailto:alangingras@REDACTED>>
>             wrote:
>
>                 Thanks for the suggestion.  I've been trying to keep
>                 the work totally in Erlang.  Partly because I am
>                 trying to become better with Erlang itself and partly
>                 out of stubbornness.  I had looked at using a browser
>                 based GUI but for what I'm doing I really don't want
>                 (or need) to be too complicated.  One of the other
>                 responses suggested using C# to create the front end
>                 and communicate with Erlang via TCP.  I had thought of
>                 that as well, but decided to pursue using pure Erlang
>                 but have become stymied by wxErlang and its
>                 difficulty.  Most likely I will end up pursing the C#
>                 (or similar) front end.
>
>
>                 Alan
>
>>                 On December 6, 2017 at 3:04 AM Zachary Kessin
>>                 <zkessin@REDACTED <mailto:zkessin@REDACTED>> wrote:
>>
>>                 I had thought it would be an interesting idea to
>>                 build a GUI toolset around Erlang such that each
>>                 widget on screen was a process. That being said I
>>                 think to develop such a toolkit would probably cost
>>                 on the order of $1,000,000 (Total guess on the number).
>>
>>                 If I had to develop a desktop app with Erlang I would
>>                 probably use something like Electra to do a virtual
>>                 browser with an Elm Frontend.
>>
>>                 Zach
>>>>
>>                 On Tue, Dec 5, 2017 at 10:13 AM, Sergej Jurečko
>>                 <sergej.jurecko@REDACTED
>>                 <mailto:sergej.jurecko@REDACTED>> wrote:
>>
>>                     What we did when we wanted to ship a GUI app with
>>                     Erlang was running erl in the background and
>>                     communicate over stdin/stdout.
>>
>>                     Regards,
>>                     Sergej
>>
>>
>>>                     On 5 Dec 2017, at 09:07, Alex S.
>>>                     <alex0player@REDACTED
>>>                     <mailto:alex0player@REDACTED>> wrote:
>>>
>>>                     For what it's worth, you can always implement
>>>                     your view and controller in something like
>>>                     C#/F#, and your model in Erlang, and hook them
>>>                     up via TCP. Alternatively, there was an
>>>                     Erlang-toF# compiler floating around I believe.
>>>
>>>                     2017-12-03 22:43 GMT+03:00 Alan Gingras
>>>                     <alangingras@REDACTED
>>>                     <mailto:alangingras@REDACTED>>:
>>>
>>>                         Has anyone tried using Windows Forms (.net)
>>>                         with Erlang? This would be in a similar
>>>                         fashion to way Python can use Windows
>>>                         Forms.  On Linux I believe this would be
>>>                         Mono
>>>                         (http://www.mono-project.com/docs/gui/winforms/).
>>>                         Basically I think I’m looking for something
>>>                         similar to Python’s “import” and C#’s
>>>                         “using” features.  If no one has anything,
>>>                         any hints on how a feature like this might
>>>                         be implemented.
>>>
>>>                         Basically, I have been working on
>>>                         implementing genetic programming in Erlang
>>>                         and would like to provide a GUI front end.
>>>                         The WxWidgets front end that comes with
>>>                         Erlang is difficult at best.  I’ve used
>>>                         several different GUI kits on *nix and
>>>                         Windows platforms but WxWidgets seems the
>>>                         most difficult for me.  So I’m trying to see
>>>                         what else is available.  I followed Joe
>>>                         Armstrong’s quest earlier this year and
>>>                         didn’t see where he came up with anything.
>>>
>>>                         Thanks.
>>>
>>>                         Alan
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>>                 -- 
>>                 Zach Kessin
>>                 Reduce project risk with training in Elm For web teams
>>                 Skype: zachkessin
>>                 +972 54 234 3956 <tel:+972%2054-234-3956> / +44 203
>>                 734 9790 <tel:+44%2020%203734%209790> / +1 617 778
>>                 7213 <tel:%28617%29%20778-7213>
>>
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>
>         -- 
>         Zach Kessin
>         Reduce project risk with training in Elm For web teams
>         Skype: zachkessin
>         +972 54 234 3956 <tel:+972%2054-234-3956> / +44 203 734 9790
>         <tel:+44%2020%203734%209790> / +1 617 778 7213
>         <tel:%28617%29%20778-7213>
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