Web IDE as an app! (node-webkit / nw.js)

I wasn't gonna mention electron, yet.
In the area of micro:bit and https://pxt.microbit.org/ an electron app was under way, but was taking too much time, so a while, I maintained a way of running pxt as ... an electron app which can still work but MS is almost finished and it's usage was nearly finished in relation to my use.
https://github.com/microbit-drill/epxt

( http://microbit-drill.org/ )

@oesterle yes, it can actually run under Electron right now as well - but the situation is actually even worse there :)

The problem is getting to talk to the underlying hardware - as you say there are loads of solutions for packaging HTML out there already. Generally getting at the OS for stuff like Bluetooth LE requires native modules, and that means that if you insist on installing yourself from GitHub you need to have a build environment installed.

I've pre-built everything for Windows so it should work fine if you just download the binaries from the Web IDE page, but I believe @OwenBrotherwood is trying to compile himself, and setting up a compile environment for Node.js in Windows is really painful.

NW.js has the real benefit that it contains Chrome's extensions - that means that on Mac and Linux it 'just works' (assuming you have BLE set up right) without needing any other modules. It's only on Windows where there's no Web Bluetooth support that there's a big issue (although it'll still work for USB devices), but when Chrome finally adds Web Bluetooth support for Windows in the next few months it'll start 'just working' too - I think at that point it'll be the only sensible solution for this kind of thing.

node.js on windows is not painful : one just has to do it correctly :)

nw.js was under my radar and I have to do a "catch up" in the area: I think that Gordon is usually right, so my "catch up" has to hurry up.

electron is no bed of roses: I take Gordons comments very seriously.

Background information:
All the kids in the local council are getting chrome books, the same devices they will use when I do volunteer teaching so I need "problem free" usage: I take Gordons comments very seriously.

In general, I focus on Windows problem free usage (teachers) and will be doing chromebook (pupils) analysis so the kids can play and learn with teachers that can also follow what they are doing.

Windows 10 x64 should work fine with the Web IDE download - it's just using from source that is painful - made worse by the fact that the node.js and NW.js/Electron V8 versions usually don't match, so you can't just use NPM to install the native packages.

This is worth a look if you're interested in NW.js/Electron differences: http://tangiblejs.com/posts/nw-js-and-electron-compared-2016-edition

It is "interesting" to install https://software.intel.com/en-us/intel-xdk (nw.js flagship from Intel for developement)
The software included in the kit is installed as non-admin and all code is in ~/ or windows equivalent of the same
As the installation is shown with files installing, one notes nodes.exe and a lot of other well known files.

Hi - can you post stuff like this somewhere other than the news thread? It's worth noting that NW.js for Windows will likely be just like you found Chrome was - it'll say it supports Web Bluetooth, but it doesn't do anything other than display the device chooser.