We are still working our way up to a proper release. The Lively
Kernel itself seems pretty well ready@this point, as it now runs
reasonably on Firefox, Safari, and Chrome in both SVG and Canvas
variants (at least in the Beta versions that offer Canvas).
It would be nice to be able to add Canvas and SVG variants of Opera
and Internet Explorer.
I believe that Opera only fails due to a few runtime issues and a few
syntax issues that should be fairly easy to clear up. It's a nice
platform in that it supports both Canvas and SVG already, and it runs
on a number of mobile devices.
Internet Explorer is another matter. There is a plugin to supply SVG
for IE (see
http://www.examotion.com/), and I believe there are a
couple of packages that will support most canvas operations in IE by
using VML (see...
http://arstechnica.com/software/news/2008/08/mozilla-drags-ie-into-the-future-with-canvas-element-plugin.ars http://blogs.msdn.com/sompost/archive/2006/02/22/536967.aspx). I believe that the main hurdle for IE is their JavaScript which
has several incompatibilities with our code. What I don't know is
how serious theres are and/or what is needed to run al alternative JS
in its place. What I read looks pretty daunting. The best solution
for IE may be for us to complete a Java applet that runs LK, and then
folks can (hopefully) start this up in IE. But that won't happen in
time for the release.
Anyone want to earn a silver star by getting Opera to run Lively
Kernel? Partial credit will also be awarded for making enough
progress to be clear about what more is needed.
- Dan
Locked
