Target MacOS, Windows with release builds

[jacobwhall]

...picking up from the conversation in marktext#1290, it would be great to build releases for MacOS and Windows out of this repository. A lot of folks looking for the bug fixes merged into this fork use those platforms, and it would be nice to get them binaries that work out-of-the-box.

It looks like electron-builder supports these platforms, so its just a matter of setting that up, and uploading the binaries to each release on GitHub. I would love to see this process automated with GitHub Actions, but I'm also happy to do it manually if we can document a workflow.

[axelrindle]

I just found this project: https://www.electronforge.io/

Maybe it's a good idea to migrate to that.

[jacobwhall]

If it works better, I'm all for it. @axelrindle would you be down to take a stab at this?

My only concern is that I want to keep this repository similarly-organized to upstream, so that incoming PRs upstream can be merged in easily. So, if we can get this build process working without too much of a redesign, that would be sweet. That being said, if Electron Forge is simply better, in with the new! I'm not scared of messy git merges 😆

[axelrindle]

I'll try my best!

[axelrindle]

My only concern is that I want to keep this repository similarly-organized to upstream, so that incoming PRs upstream can be merged in easily.

I see your point, but I think that making this project modern and maintainable will require breaking some of the old structures. Electron's current major version is 25 while this project still uses 17. This is bad not just from a security perspective.

Also I saw some webpack 😬
Electron Forge seems to support Vite which should really be the preferred build tool not only in terms of performance but also speaking of maintainability and developer experience. For reference you can visit a template like electron-forge-vite-vue-template.

[jacobwhall]

I fully support a move to Electron Forge and Vite if that feels within reach. Please ping me if you'd like to hand this project off.

I suspect we'll get some good attention from the MarkText community if we can ship a modernized build process!

[BigBoyBarney]

Hey guys! Thanks for keeping everyone's favourite Markdown editor alive! I see this issue is closed now, but there are no windows builds yet. Are there still plans to release for windows, or have you guys shelved the idea?

Thanks in advance!

[jacobwhall]

Hey @BigBoyBarney, thanks for your interest. A related issue that appears on this page was closed, but this issue is very much open. @axelrindle has been making steady progress on #4, check out that page to follow along!

[jacobwhall]

Progress has stalled on this issue (which is totally fine, we are volunteers after all), but in case anyone visits this issue in the future we are welcoming any contributions. Feel free to build off the work in #4 or try your own thing.

@axelrindle, my sincere thanks for helping get this project started. Just let us know if you decide to revisit this!

[MaderHatt3r]

So I managed to build an unsigned version of the dmg (Mac version) for arm and x86 using the code from the original repository and an update to mermaid 10.9.1

I originally tried this from a Linux machine only to struggle until I found out that it's not possible to cross compile for mac, so I used my work Mac machine.

I don't think I can publicly publish these dmg here for now until I consult/ receive permission to contribute to a public project.

If someone with a mac (especially arm) wants to let me setup and compile from their machine in the interim, just let me know.

I haven't tried the forge pr referenced here yet. I could possibly contribute my personal time to some PRs, etc, but I'm not sure how much. I've always wanted to work on software I use daily.

There are so many open PRs on the original repo. How did you actually get one through after years? Is it possible to get permissions to manage it or something?

[jacobwhall]

Hey @MaderHatt3r, great to hear you've had success building for MacOS against the original project repository.

This is a separate repository, a fork of the original where I have permission to merge any PRs I like. Because of this, the door is open for interested parties to help us (re-)develop build pipelines for Marktext, and hopefully improve its compatibility with modern systems.

If you are able to build marktext against this repository, I'd be interested to hear about how you did it. If you'd be willing to post the steps here or in a Discussion that would be helpful. I would like to create GitHub Actions that automatically build for MacOS (and Windows) as we update this repository moving forward.