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Daniel Henry Holmes Ingalls Jr.: The Live Web. Drag 'n drop in the cloud

JSConf · demo · Watch on YouTube

GUI, HCI & interface historyWeb developmentTech pioneers & interviews

What it is

Smalltalk pioneer Dan Ingalls presents the Lively Kernel at JSConf US 2012, a live, direct-manipulation programming environment running in the browser. He shows drag-and-drop building of live objects on the web.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Commenters link it as a demo of what a live, inspectable, Smalltalk-style environment in the browser can be, in threads about Alan Kay, Smalltalk and web limitations.

  • 3 people recommended it
  • 3 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2016, last 2026

What HN commenters said

  1. “If you want a demo, you can take a look here”

    Demo of the Lively Kernel live web environment.

    mmiller, 2016-06 · Recommendation · in “Alan Kay has agreed to do an AMA today”

  2. “Dan Ingalls himself presenting his continued work in the browser at JSConf US 2012”

    Dan Ingalls presenting his browser-based live environment at JSConf 2012

    apaprocki, 2019-09 · Recommendation · in “Smalltalk-72 Instruction Manual (1976) [pdf]”

  3. “Two demos says it all”

    Ingalls demo of fixing the browser's limitations with the Lively Kernel

    morphle, 2026-02 · Recommendation · in “Show HN: A native macOS client for Hacker News, built with SwiftUI”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: dan ingalls, lively kernel, smalltalk, morphic, live programming, browser

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