Part 1. Getting started

Our goal in part 1 is to get you up to speed on what Griffon offers to the desktop application development experience by diving directly into code. Part 1 is all about hitting the ground running.

We’ll introduce you to Griffon by guiding you through building your first Griffon application: a simple multitabbed file viewer. You’ll experience most of the tasks required to design, build, package, and deploy an application; and we’ll take a quick look at the building blocks of the framework, its conventions, and the application’s life cycle.

Taking inspiration from mythology, a Griffon (or Griffin) is a mystical beast that’s half eagle, half lion. In antiquity, the lion was considered the king of beasts, while the eagle held the same title for birds. Thus an amalgam of both creatures results in the king of all creatures. The Griffon framework is an amalgam between the web world (thanks to its Grails heritage) and the desktop world. Griffons were thought to guard treasures and riches; in our case, Griffon is the key to a productive experience when writing desktop applications.

Let’s begin our journey by looking the Griffon directly in the eye.