[lively-kernel] Lively Kernel in 10 lines?

[Peter Fraser]

..or 100 lines, or even 1000    -I'm not trying to reinvent computing 
here  :-)

I'm not great at reading code, and even something as fiddler-friendly as 
LK is a bit impenetrable for me   -but I like learning by imitation so 
I'm looking for ideas on where to start imitating.

If anyone felt like commenting on either of the two questions below, I 
would be grateful   -and it might be fun!



A.  "Write a micro-lively that just does this..."
=======================================

eg

What would a ten line LK do?   (yes, I really do mean a web page with 10 
lines of javascript!    *Perhaps* it would use JQuery (or something else 
general)   but no LK code)

A 100 line LK?

..a 1000 line LK?

...3000 lines?

  ...N lines?

If it had a persistence model, what would it persist?

What graphics would it target? SVG? HTML? Canvas?

NB: don't be asking "what are you trying to achieve in this system" 
:-)   -the answer is "the same as LK is trying to achieve!"

Go on  -set me a challenge!


B.  "If I was to rewrite LK from scratch I would start like this...."
=======================================================

I'm really probing for both "how LK works" (what sub-systems would you 
put in place first?)  and "what would you do differently?"  (not 
necessarily better, but different directions you might try)

Would you be tempted by any of: CoffeeScript, Dart, TypeScript, [?]  
(warning: serious bike-shed peril !)

Would you take a TDD approach? ( no attitude here btw  -I'm a 'rest 
first' developer myself and i'm not talking about representational state 
transfer ;->  ).  Would you use any of Selenium et al (does LK use such 
a thing now?)

Is Git the perfect back end for LK? How important is the back end?

Would you support four browsers from scratch  -or run with one and 
back-fill (or would you perhaps just pick a single browser?)



For extra credit
=============
Take a few years off and write a self hosting LK, but in a literate 
programming style so we can look over your shoulder and really see how 
your kernel comes together.  Children, ask your parents first.



thanks for any comments at all on such silliness!

Pete

btw: (unrelated to the above)  great to see Dan's JSConf video with the 
audience cheering   ..and yet so ironic ( ie: how long could Dan's 
backward clock run before it got to the same level of functionality done 
in Smalltalk? hmmm )