ChromeBooks?

[TheCameronManCan]

Are there currently any plans to make GURPS Character Assistant avaliable for Chrome? I'm in the market for a new laptop and since all I want to do is use it for RP cost is my main factor... and Since almost no one is making Netbooks now ChromeBooks seem to be one of the few cost effective options left to me... Perhaps someone has a good way of running it on Chrome anyway that would be just as useful of a response.

Hope to get some info, Thanks in advance. =)

[johndallman]

GCA is a Windows application, written in VB6. If a Chromebook has the Wine Windows emulator (which doesn't look to be the case on a brief search and would require it to be an x86-based device), then you might be able to get GCA running on that.

Apart from that, Chromebooks don't seem to run Java, so GURPS Character Builder won't run.

I think you're stuck, but I'd be happy to be proved wrong.

[ClayDowling]

Chromebook is Linux underneath. Not a likely candidate to run a VB6 application. The next version is running under .NET, which can, in the right conditions, be run under Linux, but don't hold your breath for that. Or for Chromebook to have the common language runtime.

An ideal world would be for the next version of GCA to be a web app, but that's a gigantic paradigm shift I don't see happening.

[MeddlingMonk]

A Web app is hardly ideal either; it has advantages, but it has disadvantages, too.

[Graham]

A packaged web app, that would run offline on the Chromebook, would be great. I've got the Samsung ARM one, had it since January, and I'm astonished that it's become my primary device. I rarely turn on my i7 Windows 7 machine now.

You still need a Windows, Mac or Linux machine around to tackle the things that ChromeOS doesn't handle, and GCA would be a good example, but as a light, capable, cheap, and above all totally silent laptop the Samsung ARM Chromebook is stunning.

Hmm. If someone were to write a web app GURPS character generator, would that someone be allowed to use the GCA data files to support it? Would it be legal? How would Armin, Eric and all who contribute feel about that?

Graham

[ClayDowling]

Because GCS leveraged existing data formats, it's probably a better candidate for conversion to a web app. It's use of XML files make it easier to use with a lot of existing web technology (in fact, character display would only really require some XSLT stylesheets, not even writing any procedural code). Sadly, I don't see either as a likely option.

[Lisandro]

I recently made the transition to a Chromebook and now I have this 8 year old problem too. Any news or alternatives on the matter?

[johndallman]

Well, GCA5 is written in a more modern version of Visual Basic, and runs under .NET. There is .NET Core for Linux (and macOS), and you should be able to run that on a Chromebook in its Linux container.

However, I think GCA5 is written using the .NET Framework, rather than .NET Core. The Framework provides a lot more GUI facilities, but is Windows-specific. A revision to run on .NET Core would probably be a big job.