From c8b9b4cd8f871e8da3943354c784a0c9c98e65ec Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Manav Rathi <manav@mrmr.io>
Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2024 16:31:16 +0530
Subject: [PATCH] Document better

---
 desktop/README.md         | 36 ++++++++++++++++++++----------------
 desktop/docs/dev.md       |  4 ++++
 desktop/package.json      |  4 ++--
 desktop/src/utils/main.ts |  4 ++++
 4 files changed, 30 insertions(+), 18 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 desktop/docs/dev.md

diff --git a/desktop/README.md b/desktop/README.md
index 9d637de04..e947e2a70 100644
--- a/desktop/README.md
+++ b/desktop/README.md
@@ -10,12 +10,6 @@ To know more about Ente, see [our main README](../README.md) or visit
 
 ## Building from source
 
-> [!CAUTION]
->
-> We moved a few things around when switching to a monorepo recently, and the
-> desktop app is not currently building with these instructions below. Hang
-> tight, we're on it, and will fix soon.
-
 Fetch submodules
 
 ```sh
@@ -28,22 +22,32 @@ Install dependencies
 yarn install
 ```
 
-Run the app
+Create a binary for your platform
+
+```sh
+yarn build
+```
+
+## Developing
+
+Instead of building, you can run the app in development mode
 
 ```sh
 yarn dev
 ```
 
-To recompile automatically using electron-reload, run this in a separate
+> [!CAUTION]
+>
+> `yarn dev` is currently not working (we'll fix soon). If you just want to
+> build from source and use the generated binary, use `yarn build` as described
+> above.
+
+This'll launch a development server to serve the pages loaded by the renderer
+process, and will hot reload on changes.
+
+If you also want hot reload for the main process, run this in a separate
 terminal:
 
-```bash
+```sh
 yarn watch
 ```
-
-`yarn dev` is handy during development, but if you wish, you can also create a
-binary for your platform by using
-
-```sh
-yarn build
-```
diff --git a/desktop/docs/dev.md b/desktop/docs/dev.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4575188fd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/desktop/docs/dev.md
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+# Development tips
+
+* `yarn build:quick` is a variant of `yarn build` that uses the
+  `--config.compression=store` flag to (slightly) speed up electron-builder.
diff --git a/desktop/package.json b/desktop/package.json
index b3db86f73..a835b81c6 100644
--- a/desktop/package.json
+++ b/desktop/package.json
@@ -7,10 +7,10 @@
     "main": "app/main.js",
     "scripts": {
         "build": "yarn build-renderer && yarn build-main",
-        "build-local": "yarn build-renderer && yarn build-main-local",
         "build-main": "tsc && electron-builder",
-        "build-main-local": "tsc && electron-builder --config.compression=store",
+        "build-main:quick": "tsc && electron-builder --config.compression=store",
         "build-renderer": "cd ../web && yarn install && yarn build:photos && cd ../desktop && rm -f out && ln -sf ../web/apps/photos/out",
+        "build:quick": "yarn build-renderer && yarn build-main:quick",
         "dev": "concurrently \"yarn dev-main\" \"yarn dev-renderer\"",
         "dev-main": "tsc && electron build/app/main.js",
         "dev-renderer": "cd ../web && yarn install && yarn dev:photos",
diff --git a/desktop/src/utils/main.ts b/desktop/src/utils/main.ts
index 21bb3b9e7..417e5cc48 100644
--- a/desktop/src/utils/main.ts
+++ b/desktop/src/utils/main.ts
@@ -79,6 +79,10 @@ export async function setupMainMenu(mainWindow: BrowserWindow) {
 }
 
 export function setupMainHotReload() {
+    // Hot reload the main process if anything changes in the source directory
+    // that we're running from. In particular, this gets triggered when `yarn
+    // watch` rebuilds JS files in the `app/` directory when we change the TS
+    // files in the `src/` directory.
     if (isDev) {
         electronReload(__dirname, {});
     }