Decoding the Creation of Chromium OS: A Teen's Impressive Feat

[haxtor21]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/business/09ping.html

If someone could give me the technical details as to how this kid got the chromium source code compiled and created this project?

Its things like these that make me sometimes regret starting college too early.

 

[NobodySpecial]

He presumably downloaded it from the download link on the chrome page http://code.google.com/chromium/
then did configure/make/etc - there should be some instructions in the download.

The OS is open source, you are supposed to download it - it's not secret

 

[haxtor21]

yeah just talked on the IRC forum and figured it out
thanks though

 

[haxtor21]

One more question... how would web apps work in the ChromiumOS? In what language would web apps be developed?

I am anticipating a SDK for web apps. This is starting to look like serious Apple competition.

 

[Coin]

I don't have direct experience with the Chrome kiosk OSes but "web apps" normally means JavaScript, often paired with a server side component. Flash (actionscript) and Java may also be used in web apps where they are available-- I do not know which if either of these the Chrome OS would support. Chrome specifically also has a technology called "NaCl" which allows you to run security-checked compiled code, meaning a web app could be written in C++ or just whatever language.

 

[haxtor21]

I don't have direct experience with the Chrome kiosk OSes but "web apps" normally means JavaScript, often paired with a server side component. Flash (actionscript) and Java may also be used in web apps where they are available-- I do not know which if either of these the Chrome OS would support. Chrome specifically also has a technology called "NaCl" which allows you to run security-checked compiled code, meaning a web app could be written in C++ or just whatever language.

so what your essentially saying is that its possible to write applications in a high level language and use scripting languages for the UI ? could these be interchangeable?

Im want to become a mobile dev, so I am trying to figure out what languages to start learning after i get java down. I was considering learning some C, then maybe taking a shot at Android. But this cloud computing idea seems very interesting. What can you recommend ?

 

[Coin]

so what your essentially saying is that its possible to write applications in a high level language and use scripting languages for the UI ? could these be interchangeable?

I'm not sure I understand the question. Web apps are written in Javascript. UI is laid out using HTML, and Javascript is used to create interactivity.

Sometimes there is a "server side component". This means you will write the "visible" part of your application, the GUI and such, in Javascript, and then you'll stash some of the smarts on a web server somewhere. The part of the program that lives on the web server can be written in any language but will be often written in Python, PHP, Ruby or sometimes Java. You then use "XHRs" (XML HTTP Requests) to pass data back and forth between the part of your program written in Javascript (running inside the web browser) and the part of your program written in Python-or-whatever (running on the web server). Because the XHRs are invisible to the user, they have little awareness that there is a part of the app that lives outside the web browser. However the part on the web browser which the user uses is still all JavaScript. Applications that rely on this idea heavily are sometimes called "cloud" or "AJAX" apps.

The only especially good way to get around writing your web apps in Javascript is to use some kind of a plug-in or browser extension, like Flash, the Java VM, NaCl or ActiveX. Usually you do not rely on one of these unless you absolutely have to because they limit your market to people who have the appropriate browser/plug-in, and can sometimes annoy the user. I mentioned NaCL in the context of Chrome OS because if you want to run a C++ application on Chrome OS, NaCL will probably (I'm totally just guessing here) be the best/only way to do it.

Im want to become a mobile dev, so I am trying to figure out what languages to start learning after i get java down. I was considering learning some C, then maybe taking a shot at Android. But this cloud computing idea seems very interesting. What can you recommend ?

If you do Android, you have to program in Java. Period. (There is something called the NDK but you don't want to use it.)

Assuming again that by "cloud computing" you mean web apps, cloud/web apps are a good way to get your work onto mobile phones in a simple way. Both Android and iPhone have good support for web apps and if you're careful you can make web apps that rival native apps in usability.

Given what you have expressed an interest in, I might suggest you look into the "Google Web Toolkit". This is a single API that allows you to write a complete web app all in Java. The server side component runs in Java, and they have a special compiler that turns Java into Javascript (meaning it does not require you to use the Java VM). This allows you to get around the problem that normally writing cloud apps requires you to master like three languages (you have to learn your server-side language, you have to learn Javascript in all its ungodly quirkiness, you have to master HTML/CSS/DOM and understand the strange things that happen on each browser). I have not used the Google Web Toolkit but I have heard good things about it, and Google has used it for many of their popular products.

 

[haxtor21]

Great information Coin, thank you very much sir.

Just to go on a tangent here, what languages would I have to learn in order to develop a interactive website for my school. My idea was to connect the student's complaints with the teachers and administrators more fluidly and anonymously. Possibly integrating a IRC client somehow so that kids can talk to teachers live about homework etc., with each other, principal/board office would know what the students are really thinking etc.

What languages would you recommend for such an endeavor? Considering I don't know much about the web, would such a project be possible to complete before I graduate HS ?(im a senior)

HTML, CSS, Ajax, PHP, MySQL ? perhaps.

Would books be a good start? Should I perhaps focus on doing something simpler than adding things onto the project to reach what I have portrayed in my mind?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Coin]

That sounds like a very large undertaking. If I had to do that I would probably use django, but that is because that is a language/toolset I am familiar with. There are many languages and frameworks that would be appropriate for that. However the best thing to do in that particular case would probably be to seek out whether there are any existing pieces of collaboration/CMS software (or maybe even software designed for schools) that do essentially what you need, and see if you can adapt or configure it to your needs. Something the size of that you could easily spend all your time just administrating the thing (learning just to get Apache running and doing what you want is nontrivial). Also convincing students/administrators to use something like that would be a difficult social engineering problem! Especially in high schools, which are often risk averse.

I do think coming up with a concept for an interactive site, as you have, and then attempting to implement it in whichever language you feel you are interested in learning is a great way for someone at your current level to get started. Maybe if you want to try to implement a site like that, a good approach is to pick a web toolkit or framework (picking based on it using a language you already know or think you can learn quickly is a good way to do this), then maybe pick one *specific* feature you'd like your eventual site to have, and try to get that working. Once you get a small basic site*working you can build more features around it.