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I would like to use javascript to develop general-purpose GUI applications. Initially these are to run on Windows, but I would like them to ultimately be cross-platform.

Is there a way to do this without having to make the application run in a browser?

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  • Why Javascript? If you want cross-platform then why not Java or Python? Commented Sep 23, 2008 at 8:32
  • Javascript is much nicer to write than Java (IMHO). Python would be close. I just like javascript, and I wonder if I can break it away from the confines of a browser. I think I'll take a look at AIR. Commented Sep 23, 2008 at 10:08

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Check out Adobe AIR.

From Wikipedia:

Adobe AIR is a cross-platform runtime environment for building rich Internet applications using Adobe Flash, Adobe Flex, HTML, or Ajax, that can be deployed as a desktop application.

Also check out Mozilla Prism (in beta).

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JsLibs

Today I came across this: http://code.google.com/p/jslibs/
(from DZone) JS Libs seems to meet my requirement. I'll have a look, and if I find that it's interesting, I'll post back here.

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You could try to combine something like SUN's Lively Kernel with Mozilla's Prism.

  • Lively Kernel is a GUI Stack written entirely in JavaScript using SVG for display purposes.

  • Prism is a way to launch web applications without showing the browser in which they run.

Very bleeding edge though, use at your own risk. :-)

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XUL Runner might be an answer, but I'm afraid I can't speak from experience.

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You can use nodeGUI . By which you can use all modules of nodejs. And you can style your app with css without any html file. Check it out :- https://docs.nodegui.org/

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JScript .NET might be able to do it. It was intended for ASP .NET and .NET may not be cross platform the way you want it. However, more interest might create more development.

JScript .NET: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms974588.aspx

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Prova Titanium. It's a development platform that allows you to build apps for mobile and desktop using the common web languages (html, javascript, php, etc).

It's open source!

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You can use the rhino JavaScript interpreter from Mozilla. It allows JavaScript to access any of the Java libraries, including Swing for GUIs. http://www.mozilla.org/rhino/

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Try AIR, you can even use your JS toolkit of choice Using it with dojo look at this: http://dojocampus.org/content/2008/04/02/dojo-on-air-a-fancy-file-uploader/

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Well, if you didn't want your software to be cross-platform, then you had two options on Windows:

  • HTML Application (HTA) .hta (tutorial)
  • Windows Script/Scripting Host (WSH) and the XML like Windows Script File (WSF) .wsf format, to mix JScript and VBScript and run them with cscript.exe/wscript.exe (example)

Notes:

  • Option one actually uses Internet Explorer and mshta.exe under the hood, so I don't think it suffices your requirements.
  • Option two, JScript doesn't have all the VBScript GUI functionalities. So in the example provided above, you have to actually define VBScript SUBs to get GUI elements.
  • Microsoft's JScript and mainstream dialects of JavaScripts are not fully compatible.

P.S. A great tutorial about WSH, WSF, VBScript, JScript ... here

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