Hi Ben,
I would like to see Genode being compiled on Genode. I know that a run script exists for that, but it doesn't really work, especially given Genode's (build) dependence on tools that haven't been ported yet (e.g. expect, tclsh, autotools). Once all of Genode, including the ports of 3rd-party software, will build properly on Genode, testing and debugging will be faster and easier.
this topic fits nicely into my ambition to stress Genode. I agree that hosting the entire build infrastructure and implementing the development workflow directly on Genode sounds intriguing.
The key to achieve that is to get noux up to speed, and to revisit some of its inner workings. I have some ideas in this respect that I'd like to try out. But before it is worthwhile to start with that, we should address a few limitations of its underpinnings, in particular the VFS.
Another day-to-day scenario that is much easier to realize - compared to the full development worklow - would be a multi-component email application where multiple noux instances are used for dedicated tasks like fetching email, browsing local folders, composing an email, or sending email. Each noux instance could be tailored to its purpose. E.g., the one for browsing the local folders wouldn't have network access. So emails stored locally cannot leak to the network. This scenario is less demanding than the development scenario and would possibly reach more users. So we might better first go for this one?
Cheers Norman