Build desktop app

[ImSingee]

It's impressive that one works out of the box on web, iOS, and Android. I believe the next step could be extending support to desktop platforms like Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Technically, this shouldn't be overly complex. It might involve switching the bundler to support building for new targets, potentially using tools like Electron or React Native. However, I believe it's not as straightforward as issue #264 suggests. Desktop platforms can offer more capabilities than the web, so the JavaScript code should be aware of the target platform. In the meantime, we might also consider introducing additional file extensions, such as .desktop.ts or .macos.ts.

I'm currently developing an app for all platforms. If adding a desktop build target in one is deemed acceptable, I’m willing to take on the task.

[barziahmed]

If the One team decides to support desktop platforms, please don't use Electron for that purpose, as it defeats the whole theme and atmosphere of One, rather they should utilize React Native for that matter, that will be consistent with the project's philosophy and architecture.

I am also skeptical or discourage supporting more platforms for the time being, because the engineering resources might be too thin for the time being.

From React Native's docs

[natew]

We use it with Tauri and it wasn't too hard to set up, certainly making sure it works well with them is good, and I'm open to custom platform extensions as a PR.

For RN Window/MacOS it would be interesting, but I'd just need to know someone else would be taking care of it for a while.

[ImSingee]

After conducting some research, I decided to go with Electron.

Tauri: While Tauri is a good option and avoids embedding Chromium within the app, it has some/many subtle bugs. One of my primary reasons for building a desktop application is to leverage native capabilities. However, using Tauri requires setting up Rust, which means it hardly be an OOTB solution.

React Native: Initially, before posting this issue, I preferred React Native. However, after some research, its desktop version is community-driven and lacks Linux support. Moreover, I haven’t come across any notable applications built with React Native for macOS or Windows.

In the end, Electron appears to be the most suitable choice for my needs. While the larger application size is a drawback, it requires the least effort to deliver a functional desktop version, making it an acceptable trade-off for me.

I expect to start coding for these in March. If the One team or anyone else has suggestions, feel free to share them here, and I’ll review them.

[kmalakoff]

I see from the "electron" issues that @natew says this should work "as is" or it would be great to see a vite plugin developed by the community.

Can someone share a link to their adding of new platforms or walk through what would be involved to add them? I'm just not sure what would be involved or where the per platform hooks into one would be added in this framework

[natew]

@kmalakoff we're working on a new starter for tamagui pro that will basically be the best possible app we can put together with one/tamagui. we're building it out now, and it's got a ton already there including a rapidly maturing tauri setup (we have even dev/prod split builds, code sign, most of notifications/updates, some ci release stuff, sidecar, vibrancy etc etc etc).

my hope is we can release the early version of that to the Pro Chat subscribers first, maybe in 2-4 weeks.