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Idea: wikiable applications
8 points by yters 6162 days ago | 4 comments
Since nostrademons made a javascript implementation of arc, I thought it'd be interesting to create wikiable applications. The server can provide the data and basic primitives for viewing/manipulating the data, plus an application layer and its history. The client side provides the application layer editor (analogous to the wiki edit window). The code for the application layer can be edited in browser, or with an external editor that can reload the code in the browser.

I thought this might be a cool idea for a website like news.yc or this forum. It's a shorter feedback loop for a larger number of people than using a repository. I know there are terrible security implications, but the idea might work in a trusted environment.

Good idea (not that I'll have time to implement it for quite awhile)?



1 point by almkglor 6162 days ago | link

Looks reasonably good. Given that Arc also contains a server, it might be possible to do this. Basically it probably end up handling a cvs-like repository server-side, possibly automatically update-commit whenever a user does a change to his or her copy.

Currently, applications in the Arc server are writeable only by their owners. It may be possible to hack into prompt.arc to support applications being made wikied.

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1 point by yters 6162 days ago | link

Ah, well, if it's only reasonably good, I don't think I'll bother.

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1 point by yters 6162 days ago | link

Anyone have an idea how long this would take? How big of a project is this?

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1 point by almkglor 6161 days ago | link

Shouldn't be too big. Basically you could simply set up a part of prompt.arc to use a revisioning repository tool, and simply leave the working copy of the apps in each user's arc/app/ directory. When an wikiable app is edited, you can do a "cvs update" - "cvs commit" or "git pull" - "git add" - "git commit" or whatever your backend revisioning tool is. If a conflict occurs, send it back for editing, otherwise we succeed in the edit and return to prompt.

Basically you just wrap around the revisioning tool, which is effectively what a wiki with edit history does anyway.

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