Share your app

nf run is great while you work, but other people don’t have nf. To give them your app, build it:

nf build todos

On macOS you get a .app:

built todos/build/todos.app

That’s a normal macOS app. Double-click it in Finder, drag it into Applications, or send it to a friend.

On Windows you get a folder:

built todos\build\todos

Inside is todos.exe. Double-click it to run it, or zip the todos folder to send it.

What nf build does

1. Checks your app. If there are errors, it shows them and builds nothing, just like nf run.
2. Compiles it to machine code, and links that with Nifty’s runtime library into one program. Your .nf files aren’t inside the app.
3. Makes the app in a build folder next to your main.nf, named after the project folder (todos becomes todos.app on macOS, or todos\todos.exe on Windows). If you build a single file such as demo.nf, the app is called demo.
4. Replaces any earlier build, so build/ always holds the latest version.

Linking uses your system’s own linker, which nf run doesn’t need:

• macOS: Xcode’s command line tools. Install them with xcode-select --install.

• Windows: Microsoft’s C++ Build Tools. Install them with:

  winget install Microsoft.VisualStudio.2022.BuildTools --override "--passive --wait --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.VCTools --includeRecommended"
  

If something goes wrong while the app runs, such as dividing by zero, it stops and writes the error and where in your code it happened to the terminal it was started from.

Tip: add build/ to your project’s .gitignore. It’s made from your code, so there’s no need to keep it in version control.

Building for other systems

By default nf build builds for the system you’re on. A flag names the system instead:

nf build --macos
nf build --windows
nf build --linux

nf builds apps for the system it runs on, so build macOS apps on a Mac and Windows apps on Windows. Naming another system explains that. Linux has no backend yet; see What Nifty supports.

Opening the app on another Mac

Apps from nf build aren’t signed with an Apple developer certificate, so the first time someone else opens one, macOS may block it because it can’t check who made it. They can allow it once: after the warning, open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway. (On older macOS versions, right-click the app and choose Open instead.)

Opening the app on another Windows PC

Apps from nf build aren’t signed with a code-signing certificate, so the first time someone opens one they’ve downloaded, Windows may show Windows protected your PC. They can click More info, then Run anyway.