From talking to Anton, it seems like GitHub integration is next up on the TODO list. Any feedback on whether you'd find that useful and how you think it should be done would be really appreciated.
It enables users to develop web applications is JavaScript and host them in the cloud. The only tool required for development is a web browser. And the deployment is instant.
It also features an environment where applications can interact with each other; so they could be really modular and social.
Is this similar to what AppJet originally attempted to do? If so, have you attempted to contact them to see what types of problems they encountered before focusing on EtherPad?
Akshell targets more "heavy" applications than AppJet. E.g., it has a relational database and AppJet had key-value store. I contacted JGate guys. JGate is an AppJet successor http://apps.jgate.de/.
I'd like to see a clearer up-front description on the front page. This is clearly for people-in-the-know, so just letting me categorize this quickly would be really helpful.
I think this is something for doing server-side Javascript development, with integrated hosting and an IDE. It's not clear to me how things like persistence work; since Javascript is somewhat novel in this role these things aren't obvious. It's not like PHP, where I'd just assume MySQL.
I see you are talking about new programmers using this, but I wouldn't try to talk to both audiences at once. Either have a separate entry page for new programmers, or just skip it (realistically it's only early adopters who are going to be interested in this for the near future).
Your comment does makes sense. I should change the front page.
Applications has two places to store persistent data: database and file storage. The latter is rather common. The database is implemented on top of a custom query language designed for embedding into JavaScript.
You should have a look at the Joyent Smart Playform. I think it is very similar, supports CommonJS and Git style deploy. (Plus it is open source) http://github.com/joyent/smart-platform
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 25.0 ms ] threadIt also features an environment where applications can interact with each other; so they could be really modular and social.
Have you looked at the ECMAScript Proxy proposal? You might want to consider using the API.
It's more restrictive, but much more easy to use.
I think this is something for doing server-side Javascript development, with integrated hosting and an IDE. It's not clear to me how things like persistence work; since Javascript is somewhat novel in this role these things aren't obvious. It's not like PHP, where I'd just assume MySQL.
I see you are talking about new programmers using this, but I wouldn't try to talk to both audiences at once. Either have a separate entry page for new programmers, or just skip it (realistically it's only early adopters who are going to be interested in this for the near future).
Applications has two places to store persistent data: database and file storage. The latter is rather common. The database is implemented on top of a custom query language designed for embedding into JavaScript.
Here is a database API description: http://www.akshell.com/docs/0.2/guide/db-and-fs/
And query language description: http://www.akshell.com/docs/0.2/ref/core/db/#query-language