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This is amazing, thank you. Seems like several others, my actual development career began on WebOS. In high school, I was intrigued by the idea of a web-based,
by andrewmunsell 4y ago
This is amazing, thank you.
Seems like several others, my actual development career began on WebOS. In high school, I was intrigued by the idea of a web-based, multitasking capable smartphone and begged my parents to buy me one.
Ultimately I learned a ton and have great stories such as staying up all night re-architecting Weatherman (https://appcatalog.webosarchive.com/showMuseumDetails.php?&app=247 https://appcatalog.webosarchive.com/showMuseumDetails.php?&a...) because of the popularity (and this was before it was on the WebOS store, at this time it was invite-only so I had to post it on a forum!). Weatherman was just a hack on top of a hack on top of a hack. There was no Canvas API on the device so I had to generate the weather images on a server and then send them to the device, for example.
The highlight for me was winning one of the top spots in the Palm Hot Apps competition for the "free apps" category with Pixi Dust (https://appcatalog.webosarchive.com/showMuseumDetails.php?category=Games&count=1009&app=4196 https://appcatalog.webosarchive.com/showMuseumDetails.php?ca...). The physics weren't accurate by any means, but it was the first time I had seriously used C++ (I think it was, it was so long ago!).
I miss having platforms like these with innovative ideas and small communities. I learned so much by having to hack my way around the limitations of the operating system, and really miss WebOS overall. I think I might still have an old Palm Pre sitting a drawer somewhere.
- codepoet80 4y agoIf you've still got your back-end code, it'd be fun to restore your app -- I could help host it!
- andrewmunsell 4y agoI do have a zip archive of (I think all) my source code. Maybe I'll try and post it on Github this weekend and send you a link! Edit: Yep, I just checked and have both the app client and backend code. I will post everything I can this weekend and ping you via email if I can find it in your profiles or I see you have your Discord alias.
- codepoet80 4y agoIf you can't get me there, I have an email alias: curator@<the website posted in this story>
- zymhan 4y agoI'd love to dig out my Pixi to give this a try
- joshmarinacci 4y agoHey! I ran the Hot Apps competition when I was the lead developer advocate. I remember Pixi Dust. I was amazed you could get it so fast. Fun story: there was no internal API for app stats so every morning I had to manually extract data via Excel, then run scripts to generate the JSON that powered the Hot Apps dashboard. Fun times.
- andrewmunsell 4y agoThat's so cool! Of course with so many prizes on the line, I spent quite a bit of time (when I was visiting my grandparents in California none the less) over a weekend hacking together all of the ideas I could think of. It was a really great experience overall, and I'm glad you still remember Pixi Dust :)
- shaneos 4y agoI remember you well!! I think my app Mazer came in second in the free category. Such happy, simpler times https://appcatalog.webosarchive.com/showMuseumDetails.php?search=Mazer&safe=on&app=1508 https://appcatalog.webosarchive.com/showMuseumDetails.php?se...
- joshmarinacci 4y agoThe webOS dev community was amazing. I have such happy memories of that time. It made me happy that I got into this field. You all rock!
- zoover2020 4y agoAnd now kiss! Classic HN :)