The Idea Behind Forge 4D
The idea did not start with Forge.
It started much earlier.
Back when Microsoft introduced HTA – Hypertext Applications.
A simple idea:
Use HTML, but without a browser.
An application running directly on the desktop.
At the time, this felt like a small revelation to me.
Not because HTA was perfect — but because it raised an important question:
Why do applications need a browser at all?
The Browserization of Software
Many years later the world looks like this:
Electron
WebViews
Huge JavaScript frameworks
Gigabytes of Node dependencies
Today we build desktop apps by…
…starting a browser.
For many things this works.
But as a developer it often feels wrong.
Too heavy.
Too slow.
Too many layers.
The First Version
The idea never completely left me.
During my time at Dresdner Bank I once sat in support waiting for a system to stabilize.
A department had a typical request:
“We need a solution tomorrow.”
Time‑to‑market.
Developing new software usually took weeks or months.
So I started experimenting.
Instead of:
HTML
JavaScript
Browser
I built a small platform based on Java Swing.
The UI was described in XML.
The logic ran using JavaScript inside the JVM.
In many ways it was an early prototype of what Forge is today.
Applications could be launched almost instantly.
The system worked surprisingly well.
I even built a small editor for it.
Confirmation
Over the years similar ideas kept appearing.
Mozilla experimented with XUL.
Microsoft experimented with Silverlight.
Most of these approaches eventually disappeared.
But they confirmed something for me:
The idea itself was not wrong.
It was simply ahead of its time.
Then AI Arrived
Many years later I started experimenting again.
This time the situation was different.
AI can now generate large amounts of code.
With tools like Claude and Codex, an idea can quickly turn into tens of thousands of lines of working code.
That changed everything.
A platform that would once have taken years to build alone suddenly became realistic.
Forge
Forge is the result of that long journey.
The idea is simple:
Apps without the web stack.
The user interface is defined in SML (Simple Markup Language).
Application logic runs in SMS scripts.
No browser runtime.
The renderer is based on Godot, an open‑source engine.
This means:
- native performance
- modern UI capabilities
- 2D and 3D rendering
- video and animation
- sandboxed scripting
An video for example can even be projected onto a 3D surface — for example onto a wall inside a scene.
Security
A key aspect of Forge is the sandbox.
Scripts do not run directly on the host system.
They run inside a controlled environment.
This is especially important for platforms such as:
- iOS
- iPadOS
Apple does not allow applications that execute uncontrolled external code.
Forge therefore aims to provide:
A secure scripting runtime inside a native application.
Why Build This?
Because modern software has become unnecessarily complicated.
Many applications now consist of:
Browser
Framework
Framework on top of framework
Build toolchains
Node modules
Bundle systems
Forge explores a different direction.
Not:
Web apps everywhere.
But instead:
A platform that builds applications directly from structured ideas.
In the long run the workflow could even look like this:
Speech → Structure → Application
An Experiment
Forge is still young.
But it already exists:
- hundreds of commits
- tens of thousands of lines of code
- its own scripting and markup languages
Forge is an experiment.
The question is simple:
Can we make applications simple again?
Without browsers.
Without massive toolchains.
Just:
Apps without the web stack.
Get Involved
Forge is being built in public and is still evolving.
If the idea of apps without the web stack resonates with you, you can explore our projects here:
https://codeberg.org/CrowdWare
Follow the development, explore the repositories, or simply join the discussion.
Every question, experiment, or contribution helps push the idea further.
Let’s explore what applications can look like beyond the browser.
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