GSoC 2011

[Per Bothner]

On 04/07/2011 10:28 AM, Jamison Hope wrote:
> I think if you implemented a generic browser-based remote REPL for Kawa,
> and not specifically a communications layer for a MUD client, that could
> provide you with your web interface while also adding some fundamental
> capability to Kawa that we are interested in seeing.

Agree 100%.  Some further notes:

Kawa already includes a telnet library - see the classes kawa/Telnet*.java.

Regardless, for a "web mud client" I don't see where telnet comes in - at
least not for communicating to the web browser.  (I guess it might come
in when communicating with a MUD server.)  I suspect the best thing to use
for communicating between the application and the browser is HTML5 
"websockets"
- they're not quite standardized yet, but some browsers support them in 
prototype form.

What might be a useful is to support a generic read-eval-print package
that can be called from multiple languages and applications, including
MUDs.  We can support/mentor it, if you commit to getting it usable for
Kawa first ...

An interesting related follow-on project is something like the old XMLterm:
http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2000/06/07/xmlterm/index.html
The brower end (including JavaScript and webscocket protocol) would be
the same, but the application end could be a C/C++ API talking to a PTY
interface.  It could probably be also done from Java, perhaps with some
native code to start a pty.

(The XMLterm successor should be a separate project, but it would be
good to keep it in mind when designing the protocol.)
-- 
	--Per Bothner
per@bothner.com   http://per.bothner.com/