fbs

Haven't gotten around to it since 2018 and don't think this will change soon. Always happy to receive contributions though. https://github.com/mherrmann/fbs/issues/49

Shameless plug for my library [1] that makes PyQt a very viable alternative to Electron. [1]: https://github.com/mherrmann/fbs

Am I missing something? It's obvious to me he's showcasing the "fman build system": https://github.com/mherrmann/fbs which is a wonderful project because the only reason I avoided Python + Qt in the past was because I wanted to make a very very simple cross-platform installer for my friends (mac and windows) and I didn't want to spend a lot of time researching how to bundle the python runtime in a cross-platform binary. Personally, this is the most useful "Show HN" project I've seen in the past months.

I quite like Docker for compiling Linux apps to run on multiple distributions. See eg. https://github.com/mherrmann/fbs/releases/tag/v0.4.6.

Sorry to be spamming here but check out my https://github.com/mherrmann/fbs. It is literally the solution to your pain point.

Very happy to hear this as the author of a PyQt-based file manager [1] and an open source library for solving the many headaches that come with developing desktop apps [2]. Once Qt for Python is stable enough, I'll be happy to switch to it from PyQt. [1]: https://fman.io [2]: https://github.com/mherrmann/fbs

All of the points you raise are solved by my open source library [1]. It's a Python wrapper around Qt that in particular solves the deployment problem. With it, you use Qt under the LGPL, and thus typically do not need a Qt license. [1]: https://github.com/mherrmann/fbs

Shameless plug for my open source library fbs [1]. It lets you create PyQt and PySide apps in minutes, not months. [1]: https://github.com/mherrmann/fbs

> Qt's [...] biggest flaw is that it's difficult to link to an application and setup a development environment for. Check out (my) https://github.com/mherrmann/fbs. It's for PyQt but I think does get around the obstacle you mention.

People not satisfied with Electron's performance might be interested in fbs [1]. It makes it very easy to create desktop apps with Python and Qt. It was in the #1 spot here two weeks ago [2]. (I'm the author.) [1]: https://github.com/mherrmann/fbs [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16318677

For people interested in Python / Qt, I had a related Show HN this week. https://github.com/mherrmann/fbs Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16318677

It uses PyInstaller, but also does much more. For example, PyInstaller doesn't let you create installers. Also, PyInstaller only gets you 95% there for packaging. There are still some edge cases such as missing DLLs [1]. Finally, fbs provides a very high-level interface. You don't have to learn PyInstaller's configuration options, or how to create an installer on Windows or a .dmg file on Mac. Those are all things that take a significant amount of time to learn, get right and integrate. fbs does it all for you. [1]: https://github.com/mherrmann/fbs/blob/cb0d57e59c9fecf24fb281...

It would build something similar but encapsulate knowledge gained from distributing to many thousands of machines. For instance, about .dlls that are available 99% of the time but sometimes missing on some users' machines [1]. [1]: https://github.com/mherrmann/fbs/blob/cb0d57e59c9fecf24fb281...

Developing desktop apps is hard. I'm working on an open source project [1] that aims to take away much of the pain mentioned in the article, such as code signing. Perhaps some people in this thread will find it interesting. [1]: https://github.com/mherrmann/fbs