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
