5 ms·

Opening the Hood of a Word Processor (1984) [pdf]

ivanche 9y ago
Previous submission: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16349031 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16349031
- torstenvl 9y ago
  Don't know what you're seeing at that link, but it's blank (except for the standard HN layout) for me.
  - ysleepy 9y ago
    Can't see it either. Maybe it is his submission and he is shadowbanned.
    - beefhash 9y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=ivanche https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=ivanche Seems that way, check that with showdead on.
  - dooglius 9y ago
    It's [dead]. If you want, you can set "showdead" to "yes" in your user settings to see links and comments that are [dead].
- aw3c2 9y ago
  Well, no comments there so it is pointless to link.
- dang 9y ago
  There was a problem with your account but it's fixed now. In terms of linking to reposts, see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16344002 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16344002 to avoid kerfuffles in the future.
ontouchstart 9y ago
@dang Is it possible to get Alan Kay’s attention on this topic? I am sure many interesting questions would be asked if Alan is available to answer some of them.
linguae 9y ago
This was a very interesting read. For the past few months I've been thinking a lot about the possibility of a workstation operating system that operated like a Lisp machine (disclaimer: I never used a Lisp machine; Lisp machines were before my time) and promoted GUI software that could be composed of independent, interconnected parts (like Unix pipes for the GUI). Since S-expressions are functions, they can be composed just like how two Unix commands can be composed by pipes (one could think of a Unix command as a function). Then I discovered that Smalltalk implemented many of the things that I like about Lisp machines (for example, the debugging environment), and later I discovered that Apple worked on a component-based framework for GUI applications called OpenDoc. This led me to think: what if there were an operating system that was inspired by the Smalltalk-80 environment, had a REPL for command-line usage, and had an OpenDoc-like API for developing GUI apps. While doing some more reading about this area, I stumbled across this wonderful comment originally posted as a response to Miguel de Icaza's 2012 article "What Killed the Linux Desktop) that was preserved on Hacker News (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13573373 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13573373). To summarize, perhaps the Linux desktop would have been more competitive if it promoted an OpenDoc-style component-based GUI that fits with the Unix philosophy and is more amenable to the development patterns of free and open-source software, rather than trying to compete head-on against Windows and macOS by adopting Windows-esque and macOS-esque GUIs. This resonated with me. I believe that despite the much discussed notion that desktop computing is waning in influence as smartphones and tablets became popular, there is still room for a workstation-quality operating system that allows us to flexibly customize our workflows, and that a Smalltalk or Lisp base combined with an OpenDoc-like API would be an excellent platform to facilitate such a platform. I would be very interested in working on such a project, but coming from a Unix systems software research background, I'm still familiarizing myself with the body of work on Smalltalk, Lisp machines, and OpenDoc.
- LambdaComplex 9y ago
  > GUI software that could be composed of independent, interconnected parts (like Unix pipes for the GUI) You should look into Plan9. I think it fits that description in some ways. (Disclaimer: I've never used Plan9 before)
msla 9y ago
Previous: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16349031 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16349031

Previous submission: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16349031 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16349031

torstenvl 9y ago
Don't know what you're seeing at that link, but it's blank (except for the standard HN layout) for me.
- ysleepy 9y ago
  Can't see it either. Maybe it is his submission and he is shadowbanned.
  - beefhash 9y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=ivanche https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=ivanche Seems that way, check that with showdead on.
- dooglius 9y ago
  It's [dead]. If you want, you can set "showdead" to "yes" in your user settings to see links and comments that are [dead].
aw3c2 9y ago
Well, no comments there so it is pointless to link.
dang 9y ago
There was a problem with your account but it's fixed now. In terms of linking to reposts, see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16344002 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16344002 to avoid kerfuffles in the future.

@dang Is it possible to get Alan Kay’s attention on this topic? I am sure many interesting questions would be asked if Alan is available to answer some of them.

linguae 9y ago

This was a very interesting read. For the past few months I've been thinking a lot about the possibility of a workstation operating system that operated like a Lisp machine (disclaimer: I never used a Lisp machine; Lisp machines were before my time) and promoted GUI software that could be composed of independent, interconnected parts (like Unix pipes for the GUI). Since S-expressions are functions, they can be composed just like how two Unix commands can be composed by pipes (one could think of a Unix command as a function). Then I discovered that Smalltalk implemented many of the things that I like about Lisp machines (for example, the debugging environment), and later I discovered that Apple worked on a component-based framework for GUI applications called OpenDoc. This led me to think: what if there were an operating system that was inspired by the Smalltalk-80 environment, had a REPL for command-line usage, and had an OpenDoc-like API for developing GUI apps. While doing some more reading about this area, I stumbled across this wonderful comment originally posted as a response to Miguel de Icaza's 2012 article "What Killed the Linux Desktop) that was preserved on Hacker News (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13573373 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13573373). To summarize, perhaps the Linux desktop would have been more competitive if it promoted an OpenDoc-style component-based GUI that fits with the Unix philosophy and is more amenable to the development patterns of free and open-source software, rather than trying to compete head-on against Windows and macOS by adopting Windows-esque and macOS-esque GUIs. This resonated with me. I believe that despite the much discussed notion that desktop computing is waning in influence as smartphones and tablets became popular, there is still room for a workstation-quality operating system that allows us to flexibly customize our workflows, and that a Smalltalk or Lisp base combined with an OpenDoc-like API would be an excellent platform to facilitate such a platform. I would be very interested in working on such a project, but coming from a Unix systems software research background, I'm still familiarizing myself with the body of work on Smalltalk, Lisp machines, and OpenDoc.

LambdaComplex 9y ago
> GUI software that could be composed of independent, interconnected parts (like Unix pipes for the GUI) You should look into Plan9. I think it fits that description in some ways. (Disclaimer: I've never used Plan9 before)

msla 9y ago

Previous: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16349031 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16349031