Re:Show HN: Mesh IDE – a code editor that feels like a sprea...
by chrispsn on Saturday July 22, 2017 @01:53AM
(#14825645)
Right now you could share a Mesh file as code, but yes, you'd need to have a way of consuming that code. Right now there's no way of communicating the UI interface; I had envisaged that people would download Mesh separately from the internet.
Embedding Mesh and its dependencies in the file itself is really clever. The file would get a bit bloated but maybe that's OK if:
(a) when the file is consumed by other code, the interface exposed is clear
(b) when the file is opened as a Mesh program, all the user can see is the program shown in the spreadsheet, not Mesh's code.
It is potentially more risky from a security perspective if it is not easy to verify the Mesh source embedded in the file hasn't been changed to be malicious.
I'd rather be able to send anyone my-data.mesh.html, they double click it, it opens in their browser, they can modify it at will, and there's a button that's functionally equivalent to a Save button to let them overwrite the orginal file. (Like a quine on steroids. Think TiddlyWiki.) This can be done, the only problem is that you don't get the typical Ctrl+S workflow—you use the in-page button instead, and it wouldn't let you get around the "Save As" dialog, but I'm thinking it should be only a minor nuisance.
If you do it right, you could even standardize your serialization so that other tools could ingest a meshfile.
This is really neat, and I'm going to play with it tomorrow.