Re: [9fans] crazy idea - drawterm in javascript?

[errno <errno@cox.net>]

Hey David, thanks for responding.

The sci-fi you write below is exactly the sort of fiction I'd find
very interesting in "9 space", and corresponds rather closely
to what I premised in a past thread[1].

So, I believe we're speaking the same language; but the picture
you've painted seems out-of-band to the drawterm-in-browser
idea presented by the OP; for instance:

> Instead of a "traditional web server platform" for web applications
> this could be an alternative deployment target.
>

If we're talking in terms of alternative deployment targets, then
we're talking about a controlled environment where we have
control over the installed software and hardware; but the
drawterm-in-javascript idea is intended for pre-deployed,
3rd-party accessibility to plan 9.

> Use a grid of Plan 9 machines with a "native" interface in JavaScript.
>
and:
> The one that doesn't look like a Plan 9 application, but instead looks
> like a useful application?
>

The drawterm-in-javascript-on-web-browser idea doesn't actually
provide a general-consumer-friendly interface to plan 9 - it just
amounts to window into the currently-existing plan 9 ui... we're still
talking text + libdraw, libpanel, libcontrol, libframe, etc..


I agree that an html + css + javascript ui on Plan 9 would be a
good and familiar way to get native Plan 9 applications into the
hands of general users; but this drawterm-in-javascript idea
does not facilitate the goal of a more "accessible/familiar"
WIMP environment for a general consumer market; though it
would be a useful tool once we finally did have a "native web"
within plan 9 itself, because then 'we' _could_ make good on
erik's:

> one would then be able to write applications for non-plan 9
> users in plan 9.

... in a way that would actually be appealing to non-plan 9
users.


[1] http://www.mail-archive.com/9fans@9fans.net/msg19990.html