cef python

How easy and quick is it to build a simple project.

It is quiet simple as the build process is straight forward, but the documentation is not that clear. But not much problem in setting it up

How will the JavaScript communicate with the Native Backend.

CEF Python have an Javascript binding which helps us to pass data to CEF Python without much hassle

How are JS objects in JavaScript sent to the backend, and how easy is it to read them? Do they need to be encoded purely into JSON as an intermediary?

No intermediary format required. As the application is run on python server all JS objects remain same.

Can the JS make async HTTP requests to any other web server without cross domain restrictions?

yes it is possible in CEF Python 3 but in CEF Python 1 it is Sync.

Is there a way to have synchronous calls to the backend without using AJAX all the time to talk to the backend.

No Ajax required

Does the system need to be recompiled when backend changes?

No

Does system need to be recompiled when frontend code (JS/CSS/HTML) changes?

No it works like a browser just reload

If no recompile necessary is there a way to reload a specific view without restarting the app.

I had to restart the app to reflect the changes.

Is there a webkit/firefox type inspector built in to debug the javascript.

From what i understand it writes all the debug data into the log file.

Is it possible to debug the backend code easily.

Ya because it is Python the error message are much easier to understand

*What platforms will this support?

Supports Windows, OSX and linux

Can you cross compile? meaning can you build an app for OSX while on Linux, etc...

It works on all platforms, you do not need to compile

How easy is it to distribute apps built with this platform. Will this give a standard system like DMG, binary tarball (linux) and installer (windows) which users are used to.

Pretty easy, just follow the instructions on the wiki

If you need to update the application is there a straight forward path to do so.

Yes it is pretty simple as mentioned in wiki.

Does this provide cross platform library to access lower level hardware like the sound card, etc (not using HTML5 audio) in case someone needs to build a more complex system.

I was only able to find HTML5 audio access, not sure if it is possible.

Will this work on chromebooks?

Any platform with python2.7 installed