I wonder if we were going to start afresh with Wayland/X11 now, bare hardware, what place do you think the NeWS lessons would have? Would a modern NeWS be on top of PS or is there something better now?
Simply use a standard JavaScript/WebAssembly/WebGL/Canvas/HTML based web browser as the window system itself! And use WebSocket/SocketIO/RTP/HTTP instead of the X-Windows or VNC protocols.
Microsoft kinda-sorta did a half-assed inside-out version of that with Active Desktop, but Internet Explorer wasn't powerful or stable enough to do it right, and it didn't eliminate and replace the whole Win32 / MFC layer, which misses the main point.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Desktop
There was recently this discussion about a browser based Mac window manager project (now offline), and there have been others like it (Slate), but the ideal goal is to completely eliminate the underlying window system and just use pure open web technologies directly on the metal:
Show HN: Autumn – A macOS window manager for (Type|Java)Script hackers (sephware.com):
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18794928
Site archive:
https://web.archive.org/web/20190101121003/https://sephware....
Comments:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18797587
>I was also quite inspired by Slate. Unfortunately there hasn't been any activity with it for about 5 years or so. It's great you're picking up the mantel and running with it, because the essential idea is great!
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18797818
>Here are some other interesting things related to scriptable window management and accessibility to check out: