| Re: [orion-dev] Supported Target Platforms |
I don't think there is a solid answer for how to support a compiled language like Java yet, but here's a thought I had...
Start by considering what it is that is interesting about our node-based Orion server (i.e. orionode). (Aside from the fact that all the cool kids use node.js. ;-P)
What I see is that in addition to the normal Orion capabilities orionode also provides something new: The ability to run and debug node programs.
As such, the way you use this is, if you need to do node development, you simply start an orionode somewhere (say on an EC2 instance) and then either run directly on it (i.e. let it serve up your whole Orion experience) or you add that server's filesystem to the Orion instance where you usually work. Either way, you get the node files that you want to run into that orionode's workspace, and then use the Orion shell to run, debug and stop the programs. (To be clear, we know there are much more powerful integrations/workflows to be had here, and I'm sure we'll get to them, but everything I've said so far works *today*.)
Now, let's say you need to build a compiler for some language, say, Java. If you started with our Eclipse-based Orion server, and you added in the resources plug-in and the JDT core plug-ins, that would already give you an incremental Java compiler with a web front end. That is, if you pushed files into the workspace, the compiler would turn them into class files that you could then copy out. Of course, you'd probably also want to add services to get markers, parse trees, etc. but the information would already be available in JDT, and REST APIs to get access to it wouldn't be hard to design.
So you effectively just treat an "Orion server" as a thing that has a well defined API for getting to a file storage area somewhere, together with some set of useful services which can act on those files (like running Node programs or compiling Java code). They can be very lightweight and potentially even single-tenant. In a cloud world, all you do is create one when you need it and copy the files you want to process in. You can even be smart about what you copy (i.e. watch for incremental changes, copy on modify, etc.) as you work, but that can come later.
Obviously, it's not exactly a brilliant idea, but what struck me is that it's a very simple way to talk about how to provide these services in a well-defined way. It's also quite loosely coupled, so you could, for example, talk to this "Java compile server" from a vanilla Orion, with no other changes just by mounting its filesystem and copying files back and forth with the navigator. You can do *better* than that too, but you don't *have* to have that tight integration.
McQ.
Martin Petzold ---2013/04/15 05:57:35---Dear Orion Community, I'm following the project for a while now. Just to know, are there any
From: Martin Petzold <m.petzold@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Orion developer discussions <orion-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>,
Date: 2013/04/15 05:57
Subject: [orion-dev] Supported Target Platforms
Sent by: orion-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx
