Electron glossary

In this section, we will learn the technical terms that Electron

ASAR

ASAR means Atom Shell Archive Format (Atom shell archive format). A ASAR file is a simple .tar file, that is to say, those related text files are formatted into a single file. And Electron can read the files arbitrarily without decompressing the entire file.

The ASAR format was created mainly to improve the performance on the Windows

Brightray

Simply apply libchromiumcontent to a static library in the application. This term is specifically developed for Electron use.

DMG

DMG refers to the Apple system disk image packaging format used MacOS DMG file is usually used to distribute application installers. electron-builder supports the use of dmg as a compilation target.

IPC

IPC means Inter-Process Communication (inter-process communication). Electron uses IPC JSON messages between the main process and the rendering process.

CRT

CRT (i.e. C runtime library) comprising ISO C99 standard library C++ part of the standard library, to achieve its Visual C++ library supports native code development, and mixed native and managed code, it is used .NET pure managed code development .

IME

The input method editor is a program that allows users to find characters and symbols that do not exist on the input keyboard. For example, it allows users to input Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Indian characters with a Latin keyboard.

libchromiuncontent

A single open source library contains the Chromium module and all its dependencies.

main process

The main process generally refers to the main.js file, which is the entry file Electron It controls the entire App , from beginning to end. It also manages the native elements of the system, such as menus, menu bars, Dock bars, trays, etc. The main process is mainly responsible for creating APP each rendering process, and the entire Node API are integrated in it.

A per APP master process files are defined in package.json in main properties, because electron . be able to know which file should be used to start.

native modules

Native module (in Node.js Lane, also known as addons ), some use C or C++ written can Node.js Loading or Electron use require() modular approach to loading. It is mainly used to bridge JavaScript that run Node.js and C/C++ .

Electron supports the native Node module, but Electron is very likely to install a different V8 engine through Node binary encoding, so you need to specify the specific Electron local header file when packaging the native module.

MAS

MAS refers to the acronym Mac App Store on Apple system.

NSIS

NSIS is Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (nullsoft script installation system), a script-driven installation tool on the Windows

process

A process is an instance in the execution of a computer program. In Node.js and Electron , each running process contains a process object. As a global, this object provides relevant information and operation methods of the current process. As a global variable, it can be require() at any time without 060d2bfddec9ca in the application.

renderer process

The rendering process is a browser window in our application. It is different from the main process in that it can exist in multiple at the same time and run in different processes, and they can also be hidden.

Squirrel

Squirrel is an open source framework that enables Electron to be automatically updated to new versions.

userland

userland term 060d2bfddecaa4 or userspace from the Unix community when the program runs outside the operating system kernel.

v8

v8 is Google’s open source JavaScript engine, C++ and used in Google Chrome. V8 can run independently, or it can be embedded in any C++ application.

webview

webview used to integrate guest (visitor) content in our Electron application, similar to iframe . But the difference is that each webview runs in a separate process. As a page, it has different permissions and all the interactions between the embedded content and the application are asynchronous, which guarantees the security of our application for the embedded content.