JavaScript was originally created in 1995 to give web pages a little more pep than the tag could provide. Today it has far more powerful uses. Companies like Google and Facebook build complex, desktop-like web applications with JavaScript; since the launch of Node.js in 2009, it’s also become one of the most popular languages for building server-side software. Today, even the web isn’t big enough to contain JavaScript’s versatility: it’s now making its way into applications for the desktop.
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JavaScript’s ubiquity makes its migration to the desktop a natural next step.
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The idea of using web technologies to build desktop apps is not new. Adobe’s AIR system enabled developers to build desktop applications using the company’s Flash platform, and a smaller company called Appcelerator, now more focused on mobile app development, once offered tools for building desktop apps with HTML and JavaScript. More recently, a team of developers created NW.js, formerly known as Node Webkit.
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