Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[Gopher]

My experience with programming is primarily limited to interpreted languages, so I don't know very much about some of the technologies that would be necessary for this project.

I've become accustomed to working in flash, but I've grown dissatisfied with it. The main problems are that it's proprietary and it is only designed for web applications. I'd like an open source vm that works for both desktop and web apps.

HTML5 is considered to be a replacement for flash, but as I understand it still has a ways to go. The source code and resources are not packed into one neat file the way they are in flash, so it's harder to distribute HTML5 programs. It also lacks desktop capability.

What I'd like to do is take an existing vm, for example, lua, and build a custom interpreter with increased capabilities.

It would have a special HTML5 client for graphical capability. Basically, the vm would run on the user's machine as a server. When the user visits a website with a program for the vm:
-The client is downloaded from the website.
-The client sends a websocket request to 'localhost', where the vm will be listening.
-The vm downloads the program as directed by the client.
-The vm feeds graphical output from the program into the vm, which feeds keyboard and mouse input back through the websocket connection.

In addition, each program would have its own config settings. By default, programs would be subject to similar limitations to flash, but a user can grant a trusted program extra permissions in order to use it as a desktop app.

So, my questions are:
-Does this sound feasible, or have I misunderstood some of the technologies involved?
-Does something like this already exist?
-How would I get started? Unfortunately, my skillset is poorly matched to this project, so I'd have little to contribute in the beginning stages.

Thanks in advance.

[disciple]

It sounds kind of like Java to me...

[Gopher]

Hm, I didn't know java was open source now.

i tried it awhile ago, but it didn't really click with me. Maybe I'll take another crack at it, thanks.

I'd still like to know if what I described is feasible, in case things don't work out with java.

[technosaurus]

javascript and node.js + your choice of npm module