Neutron

Self-contained Node and NPM environment, useful for teaching and sketching.

Supports Windows and OSX.

What is it exactly?

Neutron brings download & run thinking to Node. It packages NPM, auto-detects and auto-installs dependencies, so you only need an editor to get started.

Neutron is based on Electron, so you get everything that Chrome and Node can give you! ⁽¹⁾

(1) native packages are sadly not supported right now, Neutron ships with ones I use for workshops often: serial-port, johnny-five and node-midi.

Why does it exist?

While Node setup might be easy for developers, its still far away from tools like Processing — "just brew it" doesn't really work if you're on Windows, or have no brew installed, or just don't want to waste few hours on tooling while teaching beginners workshops.

How do I use it?

1. download binary from releases tab
2. run it

You might want to look into examples for sample integrations with p5, three.js and regl.

API

Neutron ships with small API.

var neutron = require('neutron');

Build-in packages

• neutron.Firmata - johnny-five
• neutron.Serial - node-serialport
• neutron.Midi - node-midi

Functions

• neutron.getWindowSize() - returns { width, height } of the window
• neutron.getContentSize() - returns { width, height } of the content (innerWidth, innerHeight)
• neutron.setWindowSize(width, height) - allows you to set window size from code
• neutron.isResizable() - returns true if window can be resized
• neutron.setResizable(shouldBeResizable) - set window to be resizable or not
• neutron.getPosition() - returns window position on screen { x, y }
• neutron.setPosition(x, y) - sets window position on screen
• neutron.isFullScreen() - returns true if window is fullscreened
• neutron.setFullScreen(shouldBeFullScreen) - control window fullscreen status
• neutron.openDevTools() - opens developer tools
• neutron.closeDevTools() - closes developer tools
• neutron.getDisplays() - returns displays as detected by electron docs
• neutron.getElectronRemote() - returns require('electron').remote
• neutron.getElectronWindow() - returns require('electron').remote.getCurrentWindow()