Electron (software framework)

Electron
Original author(s)GitHub
Developer(s)OpenJS Foundation
Initial release15 July 2013; 11 years ago (2013-07-15)[1]
Stable release
32.0.1[2] Edit this on Wikidata / 21 August 2024; 17 days ago (21 August 2024)
Preview release
33.0.0-alpha.1[3] / August 20, 2024; 18 days ago (2024-08-20)
Repository
Written inC++, JavaScript, Objective-C++ and Objective-C
Operating systemLinux, macOS, and Windows
PlatformIA-32, x86-64, ARM
LicenseMIT License[4]
Websitewww.electronjs.org Edit this at Wikidata

Electron (formerly known as Atom Shell[5]) is a free and open-source software framework developed and maintained by OpenJS Foundation.[6] The framework is designed to create desktop applications using web technologies (mainly HTML, CSS and JavaScript, although other technologies such as front-end frameworks and WebAssembly are possible) that are rendered using a version of the Chromium browser engine and a back end using the Node.js runtime environment.[7] It also uses various APIs to enable functionality such as native integration with Node.js services and an inter-process communication module.

Electron was originally built for Atom[5] and is the main GUI framework behind several other open-source projects including GitHub Desktop, Light Table,[8] Visual Studio Code, WordPress Desktop[9] and Eclipse Theia.[10]

  1. ^ "electron/electron". GitHub. Archived from the original on 2 August 2016. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  2. ^ "Release 32.0.1". 21 August 2024. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
  3. ^ "Release electron v33.0.0-alpha.1 ยท electron/electron". GitHub. 20 August 2024. Retrieved 4 September 2024.
  4. ^ "electron/LICENSE at master". GitHub. Archived from the original on 12 May 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  5. ^ a b Sawicki, Kevin (23 April 2015). "Atom Shell is now Electron". Electron. Archived from the original on 9 November 2017. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  6. ^ "Build cross-platform desktop apps with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS | Electron". Archived from the original on 9 May 2022. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  7. ^ "Electron Internals: Using Node as a Library". electronjs.org. 8 August 2016. Archived from the original on 9 November 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  8. ^ Horner, Gabriel (10 December 2015). "Light Table 0.8.0". lighttable.com. Archived from the original on 13 December 2015. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  9. ^ "GitHub Repository". GitHub. Archived from the original on 19 February 2016. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  10. ^ "Theia - Cloud and Desktop IDE Platform". theia-ide.org. Archived from the original on 20 April 2018. Retrieved 31 December 2021.