April 18, 2026

bios demo 4 kids

date: 2026-04-18

downporting plan98 to plan1. the concept: a bios demo for kids. three apps, one shell, escape shows you the source code.

not a full OS. not a platform. a demo. clean.

what we're keeping

  • ur-shell.js — stripped to 3 commands: art, music, coding. plus exit/quit/escape to kill. nothing else.
  • flip-book.js — art. draw frames, animate them.
  • paper-pocket.js — music. handheld console with tone.js instruments.
  • lore-baby.js — coding. document editor with vim keybindings and saga rendering.
  • multi-task.js — window manager. draggable trays, taskbar.
  • source-code.js — the secret. escape key shows you the source of what you're running.
  • main.js — owns the escape handler. keydown Escape → showModal(source-code). if inside an iframe, propagates up to parent.
  • plan98-modal.js — showModal/hideModal.
  • plan98.js — core framework. teach/learn/draw/when/style. the whole MVC in one file.

what we're cutting

everything else. no WAS. no multiplayer. no libretranslate. no owncast. no 200-command shell. no auth. no wallet. no payments. no activity pub.

single docker container. client only.

the escape → source-code flow

main.js listens for keydown Escape at the window level. calls handleEscapePropagation(). if at root, shows source-code in a modal. if inside an iframe, posts a message up to the parent. toggle: show on first escape, hide on second.

ur-shell's exit/quit/escape commands dispatch a synthetic Escape keydown event — same handler, same flow.

the joke: press escape to see the source code of the thing you're using. kids learn that software is readable. there's no curtain.

ur-shell simplification

current ur-shell has 200+ commands. we're keeping:

art     → loadPath('/app/flip-book')
music   → loadPath('/app/paper-pocket')
coding  → loadPath('/app/lore-baby')
exit    → dispatch Escape
quit    → dispatch Escape
escape  → dispatch Escape

that's it. help text updated to match. everything else goes.

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