Devlog #7: Packaging the app and shipping!

Heyy there! Continuing from what I said on the next devlog, what I did today was finally turn ProjectGen into an actual app that people can download and run on their pc instead of just through VS code, as well as add some new features.

Then, I used PyInstaller to package everything into a proper macOS .app, including the fonts and icon. The biggest problem I ran into was the dock icon not working for some reason. My actual ProjectGen icon would appear for half a second before default ttkbootstrap icon would take its place. After asking AI to help me find a solution, I ended up using PyObjC to keep re-applying my icon while the app is running, which sometimes works and sometimes just doesn’t, but I decided not to give it too much attention. Since, I am on mac, I couldn’t locally create the .exe file using pyinstaller, so I used Github Actions plus a script Chatgpt wrote to create it from there. Then I set up a windows vm in UTM, to check if the .exe file works properly. Thankfully it does, so that’s great! Other than that, there were some errosr with indentation and syntax, which I easily fixed.

Finally, I made a .gitignore, added requirements.txt, uploaded everything to GitHub, and uploaded the packaged .app as a github release so people can download and run ProjectGen without needing Python or VS Code installed. I used AI a lot in this step, because the icon issue was driving me insane and also to create help create the Windows app. That’s it for now, see you on the next devlog!