HP webOS Developers Await TouchPad, Pre3 With Questions, Optimism | Hacker News Reader

HP webOS Developers Await TouchPad, Pre3 With Questions, Optimism

blogs.forbes.com

33 pointsmikecane5 comments

As a developer of a few WebOS apps, I'll publicly say that HP hasn't done anything to entice me to continue developing for them. From not doing anything to sell more devices to not helping developers write good apps, by having the worst documentation and public api's available.

It's interesting. They've been talking a good game as far as attracting developers go, but they don't seem to be following it up well.

Watching the TouchPad unveiling, I thought it looked pretty interesting, and I like the idea of a JavaScript based SDK, so I decided to check out their developer tools. Everything went downhill from there.

The currently shipping version of the OS is 2.0 on the Palm Pre 2, and WebOS 3.0 is coming Real Soon Now. Posts from various people in their forums suggest new developers start with the 2.0 framework for easier forward compatibility with 3.0 devices.

So what's the latest version of the SDK you can download?

1.4.5.

The WebOS 2.0 SDK is apparently "in Beta", and the only link to it is a mailto: address. Apparently I'm supposed to ask nicely just so I can experiment with the current version of their platform that they've been shipping for several months?

And why is 3.0 completely missing in action? HP needs devs targetting their upcoming devices ASAP, not months after they ship.

Seems to be a repeat of two years ago - announce new product - wait 6 months - release product - then release an SDK. I'd have thought two years later they'd be a bit better "pre"pared :)

The excuses given two years ago ranged from "gotta get to market so fast!" and "we're just a small company competing against apple!". It's two years later, they're part of HP, and the importance of getting developers on the most current and pre-release version of an SDK should be apparent to anyone with a pulse at HP.

To offer a different perspective: I was a maemo/MeeGo fanboy. Webos seemed awesome when it was unvailed and I longed for a Palm Pre for a long time (erm.. It just wasn't available...).

After I switched to Android they finaly came around and released some stuff. The first device was too late, too broken (the hinge problems). Palm Pre 2 was launched in France only. Wait - what??

Afer seeing their latest announcements I hit the power button on my Android device. I ordered a simple Pre Plus and looked into the SDK. So, while 'eekfuh' mit be not interested to develop for the platform: For me it'sthe best thing ever. Maemo/MeeGo is arguably dead. Android is a sad example of a NIH syndrome for everyhing ('based on Linux' for Android devices is really not serious in my world). Webos is not only reusing the well-known Linux stack components, it's reusing a really great programming paradigm as well.

Bottom line: The latest HP announcement (although I hate: See this, it's available in half a year!) made me purchase a Palm Pre Plus (which is better imo than any Android device I've used for a long time), to get started developing apps for a platform I really believe in.

I'm excited for the pre3, I'll probably ditch my 3gs for it.

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