About HyperMap and Mech

HyperMap

HyperMap is a simple standard for making REST resources living, computational objects, capable of using the full set of Web APIs.

HyperMap is designed to be:

• Simple to adopt for existing REST APIs (just change the Content-Type)
• Easy to program, adding only a small set of attributes to JSON and allowing scripting with a mini DOM-like model
• Part of the Web ecosystem, capable of importing ESM modules that don't rely on the HTML DOM

Mech

Mech is a universal client for all HyperMap services. Just as a Web browser allows a human to interact with any Web site, Mech allows programs to interact with any HyperMap service.

The goal is to provide an idiomatic, no-boilerplate experience in all langauges and environments.

Mech is built as a collection of front-end langauge bindings and back-end browser contexts with a HyperMap shim. The current prototype is a JavaScript (with TypeScript type declarations) front-end with a headless Chrome back-end. Other back-ends are planned:

• iFrames to run in Web browsers
• Webviews to run in iOS or sandboxed Mac apps
• An in-memory, embeddable library (possibly built on Servo)