This document describes the full, ultimate vision for Hexarc. It serves as the target to aim for.
Introduction
- Today's computing environment evolved from more primitive forms. It grew, unplanned, like a city, steel skyscrapers on streets designed for horse-and-buggies.
- Dependencies are a blessing and a curse. Loose coupling allows for flexibility, but at the cost of complexity.
- Hexarc is a computing environment for today's world. Simple enough for novices to start their programming journey, but robust enough to create world-class apps.
The Promise
- Simple enough to learn as your first programming environment: It's what BASIC and Turbo Pascal were to the previous generation.
- Cloud-native, device-aware: Use the best of both worlds. Does it run on the cloud or is it an app? Both! Neither!
- Built-in scalability: Need to serve a million users? Need a render-farm with a thousand nodes? No problem. The programming environment is designed for that from the beginning.
Scenarios
Chat Program
- A public chat program that scales arbitrarily.
- This program should be relatively trivial, since there is so little business logic.
N-Body Gravity Simulation
- This relies on a C++ module for distributed simulation.
Procedural Rendering using Luminous
- This relies on the Luminous library.
- Consider using a distributed Blender farm.
Massively-Multiplayer Roguelike
- This could ultimately be a very large and complex program, but perhaps it can start simple.
- Again, this might rely on a C++ module.
- Ideally, the C++ module supports a large set of roguelikes and the game logic is all in script/data files.
Hosting Models
You can experience Hexarc in one of the following ways:
Public Arcology
You can sign in to https://ui.hexarc.com and immediately start writing programs that will run on the main Hexarc arcology.
- Programs will scale as appropriate (e.g., Luminous can use an arbitrary number of cores).
- There will be resource limits (CPU, storage, etc.) depending on payment level.
- You can share programs with others (either at the source level or as a runtime).
- Limited interaction with the client (upload/download/etc.).
Accelerated Arcology
Download the Hexarc Accelerator to your device to take advantage of local processing and resources.
- UX is the same as for Cloud-Only
- Access to local resources (e.g., client-side compute).
- Add multiple devices to build your own distributed system.
- Unlimited usage of your own resources/devices, which compensates for limits on cloud.
Private Arcology
Deploy your own arcology and have full control.
- Can be used for free without access to Hexarc.com
- Paid maintenance plan (~$60 per year) to use Hexarc.com as coordination, deployment, upgrade service.
See Also
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