Design.txt

 Some random design notes.

Visual programming langauges:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_programming_language

Yes
---
* JS bootstrap + JS Angular + stuff Vytas recommended

Maybe
-----
* statecharts.org (Yakindu)
* Snap!
  -- Pluses: web-based, AGPL
  -- Minuses: too focused on programming theory
* Scratch
* EToys -- based on squeak/smalltalk
* Python Notebooks?

No
---
* Alice (for teaching programming)
* AgentSheets (proprietaary)
* Flowgarithm (too low level)
* Hopscotch (propriuetary)
* LARP (flowcharts, too low-level)
* Raptor (flowchart-based, too low-level, non-web)
* Visual Logic (proprietary, flowchart, non-web)
* ToonTalk (aimed at children, no web UI)
* StarLog (programming langauge, not visual)
* Cameleon (programming language, not visual)



Chat interfaces:
----------------
-- gtalk uses XMPP
   gtalk is going away

-- gplus hangout is the new thing.
   * protocol is proprietary
   * API is here: https://developers.google.com/+/hangouts/api/
     The API sucks.  It assumes ... all the wrong things. WTF, google.
   * https://github.com/tdryer/hangups/ but it seems to be chat only?
   * hangouts seems to use maybe use webRTC

-- blender: preferences->system
   frame server port 8080
   I can't figure out how to start the frame server.

-- screen-grab:
   * VLC is supposed to beable to do this, but its
     slow/compute-intensive

   * http://www.maartenbaert.be/simplescreenrecorder/
   * ffmpeg/libav can do live-streaming
     http://www.maartenbaert.be/simplescreenrecorder/live-streaming/
   * istanbul has a pipeline:  istximagesrc name=videosource display-name=:0.0 screen-num=0 use-damage=false show-pointer=false ! video/x-raw-rgb,framerate=10/1 ! videorate ! ffmpegcolorspace !  videoscale method=1 !  video/x-raw-yuv,width=1020,height=480,framerate=10/1 ! theoraenc !  oggmux name=mux ! filesink location=/tmp/tmprSI2tO
   * Just need to replace the filesink in last step with a pipe or
     char device ...

-- WebRTC
   * Complete demo here:
     https://bitbucket.org/webrtc/codelab
     http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/webrtc/basics/
   * screensharing w/ webrtc