web programming

I am fascinated by JavaScript and its rise in Drupal and the web in general and I am looking for a system to do some visual hacking with my 30000 or so public photos on flickr.

So I spent a couple of hours with the Lively Kernel which is JavaScript all the way down instead of turtles! It might not be what I am looking for but it sure is clever.

Here are my notes (I attempted to pick out the nuggets of gold from the mailing list and forum (now closed, bring on the wiki please!)):

Lively Kernel Mailing List Notes

1. http://livelykernel.sunlabs.com/pipermail/general/20080406/000058.html - console.log(<string expression>) print output of some methods to console window
2. http://livelykernel.sunlabs.com/pipermail/general/20080521/000061.html - Roadmap May 21st, 2008
3. 0.8.5 beta http://livelykernel.sunlabs.com/0.8.5/index.xhtml http://livelykernel.sunlaLKbs.com/pipermail/general/20080528/000062.html
4. alt xml studio supports lively kernel: http://web.mac.com/altmobile/altmobile_blog/ALT_Mobile_Blog/Entries/2008/3/21_Announcing_XML_Studio_v7.3.html
5. set rgb value has no effect instead this.setFill(new Color(1, 0, 0)); // We use 0..1 instead of 0..255 http://livelykernel.sunlabs.com/pipermail/general/20080324/000054.html
6. how to run LK without using any other software other than apache on localhost: http://livelykernel.sunlabs.com/pipermail/general/20080301/000042.html - "the gestalt I am working toward is that each time you make a change, it becomes a new web page that you or anyone else can share and experiment with ."
7. "SquiggleMorph (also 3 short methods -- it's just a sketch (get it?)) to let you make very basic freehand drawings. " - http://livelykernel.sunlabs.com/pipermail/general/20080208/000034.html
8. needs of community and a history of LK - http://livelykernel.sunlabs.com/pipermail/general/20080201/000024.html
9. first announcement of ALT mobile toolkit for LK i.e. HTML layout and rendering engine http://livelykernel.sunlabs.com/pipermail/general/20080127/000004.html

LK Forum Notes

1. turn LK widgets into Leopard dashboard widgets aka Web Clips - https://research.sun.com/projects/lively/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13
2. zip file to run from local (i think this is obsolete since it's from october 07, use sun zip file instead?) https://research.sun.com/projects/lively/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8