Electron / Tauri Application

[rtgibbons]

I've been fascinated with this project and the idea of a desktop app. The Perplexity desktop app leaves a lot to be desired. I currently use the application Unite to load the app in a Webkit based SSB, I've tried Coherence but I don't care for it. I've also tried Chrome (Chromium's) App mode, and it's okay but doesn't provide UX polish you get with something like Unite.

I've been playing with Tauri and Electron, and while Electron would provide the path of least resistance because it implements chrome under the hood, and there are plugins and extensions to support a lot of the same API's, it would still require work to port the extension to work as an extension or as a native electron app. Electron, since it bundles chrome, uses more memory, cpu and is large package size. Tauri leverage's the OS's native webview, i.e. Webkit on macOS - so it's much smaller and lighter on resources.

After playing with Electron for several days, it seems about 30% of the code will need be ported, which is mostly around background and service-workers, as well as creating adapter for comctx and converting wxt-storage into a storage adapter.

I wanted to create a discussion before I spend more time (and AMP credits ;)) to determine if this is something that the project is interested in merging / supporting. It will require some structure changes to the extension code to handle an being an electron app, but the idea would be that the settings page and all plugins should work without modifications. And if we do go this route, is there a preference between Electron and Tauri)?

[rtgibbons]

Playing with Tauri, the past week. Got a better feel for it and currently have this. Going to look at getting some of the plugins to load in next.