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Javascript / GitHub Electron vs Gambas

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When comparing Javascript / GitHub Electron vs Gambas, the Slant community recommends Gambas for most people. In the question“What are the best languages to write a desktop Linux application in?” Gambas is ranked 2nd while Javascript / GitHub Electron is ranked 11th. The most important reason people chose Gambas is:

You can't find such a level of easy GUI development in any other language on the Linux platform.

Specs

No specs yet!

PlatformsLinux

Versioning3.15

Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking

Common Questions

What are the best languages to write a desktop Linux application in?

Pros

Pro
Works on Linux, Windows, Mac

Being powered by Javascript, apps build with Electron can be packed to run on all 3 platforms.

Pro
Wide spread support

Javascript is a very easy language to learn, and is handy for all manner of other things. There's a good chance you already know it, or that you will need to know it in the future.

Pro
WebApps without additional work

If you don't require native features and could write a web app (i.e. a website with dynamic elements), then you could just extend it and turn it into a native app. This means that people just need to type your URL to use you app and may get more by downloading and installing it.

Pro
Complete IDE for GUI development

You can't find such a level of easy GUI development in any other language on the Linux platform.

Pro
Constantly updated

New features and bug fixes along with performance enhancements.

Pro
Complete application development suite

Supports GTK and QT along with web. Built in Form building with JIT speed. If you are developing an application targeting Linux only give this a look.

Pro
Easy to get started for someone familiar with VB on Windows

Pro
Fast to write apps

Pro
Runs on Windows 10 WSL2 environment, reported successful compilation on MacOS

Pro
Enhanced with a new test suite

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Cons

Con
Low performance

Electron applications use significantly more CPU, RAM, and disk space than applications written in almost any other framework. This results in poor battery life as well as an unpleasant user experience.

Con
Backwards incompatibility between versions

Electron is growing and constantly changing, but there is no care whatsoever whether the changes in a new version will break your application or not. Even if you write and maintain one app, changes to how Electron handles JS files and functions will make maintenance of a single app your full time job. Even the development process, programming mindset and tooling changes between versions, so there is no guarantee that your app will even have a proper architecture a year from when you've built it.

Con
Not cross platform

Con
Difficult to satisfy runtime requirements

Runtime requirements to run applications written in Gambas are not always easy to satisfy (that is, without installing the whole development environment).