Open Source Space!
Well if it wasn’t clear at the start, it’s clear now: you want Space open, and we are more than happy to oblige you. So let’s cut to the chase, you can find the source for the Space Editor on GitHub right now, right here.
If you’re not sure what you’re getting into, check out our demo version.
Now for the disclaimer bit: This is a pretty early release.
In the interest of getting this into open hands as quickly as we could we’ve open sourced the editor portion of Space. This is really the most important bit: all the real-time collaborative editing code. But it is lacking some of the other parts of the whole Space system (like chat, accounts, and Juke, though that’s open source too, so do what you will with it) because they are each their own independent systems.
The up-side is that hopefully the editor source code will allow you to experiment with including realtime collaborative editing anywhere. Integrate it with your own chat, your own servers, your own apps, etc. and make it do new and awesome things!
Note that the URL parameters for the editor allow it to be super flexible for other configurations besides 3-pane editing layout we’ve chosen by default. For example, this link directly loads a single file in a single pane from the demo version without the other panes or file browser. Load similar URLs for any file you want to edit within iframes to build any kind of viewport layout you like.
This is also not the editor to end all editors. For instance, many of you will notice (or already have) that it is focused around core web languages. Well, because we originally built Space for ourselves and those are the languages we use day-to-day, that’s what we’re going to ship with as right now. But don’t feel limited! Ace, the text editor we’ve built on, supports all kinds of things. So extend and modify Space to fit your needs.
While this release is a bit of raw source dump, everything needed to get it up and running on your NodeJS server is included via the Github link above. There are lots of bugs to work out and tweaks to make, so feel free to fork the code for your own projects and let us know what you think, and certainly let us know what you build!
Want to support the project?
The absolute best way to support the project is to build something awesome with/for Space. We’ll continuing working on it as well, but now that it’s open source, we’ll be returning to our growing list of project ideas. So we’re counting on you to help us make Space truly awesome.
And, if you would like, feel free to include a badge on your project:
See you in Space!
xo, The Chaos Collective.
