experimental-runtime v0.1.0

experimental-runtime

A runtime environment for in-browser live coding using Web technologies.

The fundamental idea behind this project is that JavaScript is executed in an iframe when the code is changed, without re-evaluating the entire iframe. This is similar to hot reloading and hot module replacement. This approach has a number of advantages over re-evaluating the entire iframe (setting srcdoc) on each code change, including:

• Application state can remain in memory between re-executions of JavaScript.
• DOM can remain in memory between re-executions of JavaScript.
• JavaScript libraries need only be loaded and parsed when dependencies change.
• It opens the door to dynamically injected state and CSS.

Inspired by:

• Bret Victor - Inventing on Principle
• Dan Abramov - Live React: Hot Reloading with Time Travel

Related work:

• GitHub: yangsu/inventing-on-principle