A Moo as a Collaborative Development Environment-CDE
Posted on 2025-08-13
This is the script for my Hacker's Public Radio podcast/
Also posted as a thread on Gamer+DBN
https://gamerplus.org/@hairylarry/115015931865575639
Click above for the discussion thread.
A Moo as a Collaborative Development Environment (CDE)
In a nutshell.
I got this brainchild listening to The Lispy Gopher Show with screwlisp and Larian but it fully formed in my mind this morning when I was relistening, without participating, so to speak.
https://communitymedia.video/w/aiMfBwxdJC28wadDefufBF
So, you have a moo, with rooms, and you can program the furniture in the room. Make it the way you like it.
You can even have a laptop or a desktop computer in the room where you can sit down and work.
When you do this a terminal opens up on the git repository for the moo. If this is your room you have privileges to change the code for this room. That is you can change the underlying code for the room you are chatting in while you are in the room chatting.
If this is your room you can also extend this privilege to trusted collaborators, maybe on a granular basis, this programmer can work on this section of code, this programmer on another, and this programmer on the whole room.
It would be good to have a testing sandbox where you can test your code before you commit. And, of course, if you commit you can uncommit when errors are discovered.
Anyone can visit the room and enjoy the cool changes made to the moo. The owner of the room can program the whole room and he can allow others to program parts of the room or the whole room.
The changes only affect this room.
But, the whole moo has a strong viral license like the GPL so all code developed in the moo is based on GPL code and is itself GPL code. As such the source must be visible.
So anyone visiting the room can sit down at a computer or pull out their laptop, open a terminal and view the code without commit privileges. If they like a feature in this room they can easily copy that code and add it to their own room. Of course, they will have to test in a sandbox and then commit. Since each room runs it's own code base compatibility is not guaranteed.
Eventually popular standard rooms will be developed and when someone sets up a room they can choose one of these tested standard rooms like an art room, a ttrpg table, a music room, or a help chat, etc.
All of this is done in terminals and all the code is plain text. Terminals can be modified to allow the presentation of gif memes, fantasy art, or playing a radio where everyone in the room can hear the music being played. You can even have a TV and host a movie night.
I hope I explained this concept in this short nutshell well enough that a computer programmer can understand it. I've never written a moo but I have developed chat screens. I would be glad to hear about difficulties that a scheme like mine might present.
Please add comments or questions in the comments section.
I am also starting a mastodon thread to discuss this idea.
https://gamerplus.org/@hairylarry/115015931865575639
Thanks
#programming #moo #chat #CDE
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