Node-WebKit (or NW.js, as it is now known) was originally created by Intel but open sourced in 2011 and is available at http://nwjs.io/; the project is an attempt to combine the best of SPA development with an offline environment (where hosting a web server is not practical).
Node-WebKit is based on Chromium, a WebKit-based browser that has been extended in order to allow you to control user interface elements that are normally off-limits to web developers. The security model has been relaxed (on the basis that the code we're running is trusted) and that it integrates NodeJS; this opens up an array of possibilities, outside of what would normally be possible with HTML5 APIs.
At first, it may seem like a complicated mix. However, fear not as most finished solutions built in nothing more than plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, with a sprinkling of images to finish it off.
The basic principle, as we will see throughout this chapter, is to produce a normal site and then compress...