2 ms·

> WebOS is exactly a webkit browser, and the applications one builds for it are indistinguishable from locally-run ajax web pages. And the revolution is that t

by serhei 18y ago

> WebOS is exactly a webkit browser, and the applications one builds for it are indistinguishable from locally-run ajax web pages. And the revolution is that these locally-run ajax web pages are in turn completely indistinguishable from what native applications on the Pre would look and feel like. The only thing they can't do is 3D and OpenGL. But then again, no Palm device could ever do that, and that didn't stop the Palm OS from having a games ecosystem.

jemmons 18y ago
I'm not sure what you mean by "what native applications on the Pre would look like." If you mean that all applications on the Pre will be indistinguishable from one another -- that they are, in essence, all constrained by the same straight jacket of Ajax "web2.0" functionality -- then you might be right (though this document seems to hint that there's functionality only the blessed "core apps" have access to, so even this might not be true). If, however, you mean to say that webOS apps will be indistinguishable from the native apps of any other smartphone platform (most notably the iPhone), well, I don't know how you can support that point in light of all the evidence provided in the article (highlighted in this thread). What precisely is so revolutionary about any of what we see here? The lifecycle? Access to GPS and the ability to launch apps? Theme-able widget libraries? An MVC development model? Dashboard, Yahoo! Widgets, etc. give you lifecycle functionality. Dashboard, at least, lets you make system-level calls and launch apps. YUI, MooTools and ExtJS all provide theme-able tables, buttons and dodads for your web apps. Sproutcore covers MVC and then some. Despite predictions of some, these technologies have not united to overthrow native desktop applications. What makes you think they'll overthrow native smartphone ones? Palm's clearly making a tradeoff, wooing web developers at the cost of application and toolchain robustness. Personally, I think that's silly (the AppStore and even the Palm Pilot software ecosystem of yore never had trouble finding developers) but maybe I'm wrong? Maybe people don't want more than widgets on their phones and the explosion of web2.0 "ports" to the Pre will secure it a place in smartphone history. But to stick one's head in the sand and say "my webapp can do anything your objc or java app can because it's revolutionary..." Well, that continues to be untrue.

by serhei 18y ago

jemmons 18y ago

I'm not sure what you mean by "what native applications on the Pre would look like." If you mean that all applications on the Pre will be indistinguishable from one another -- that they are, in essence, all constrained by the same straight jacket of Ajax "web2.0" functionality -- then you might be right (though this document seems to hint that there's functionality only the blessed "core apps" have access to, so even this might not be true). If, however, you mean to say that webOS apps will be indistinguishable from the native apps of any other smartphone platform (most notably the iPhone), well, I don't know how you can support that point in light of all the evidence provided in the article (highlighted in this thread). What precisely is so revolutionary about any of what we see here? The lifecycle? Access to GPS and the ability to launch apps? Theme-able widget libraries? An MVC development model? Dashboard, Yahoo! Widgets, etc. give you lifecycle functionality. Dashboard, at least, lets you make system-level calls and launch apps. YUI, MooTools and ExtJS all provide theme-able tables, buttons and dodads for your web apps. Sproutcore covers MVC and then some. Despite predictions of some, these technologies have not united to overthrow native desktop applications. What makes you think they'll overthrow native smartphone ones? Palm's clearly making a tradeoff, wooing web developers at the cost of application and toolchain robustness. Personally, I think that's silly (the AppStore and even the Palm Pilot software ecosystem of yore never had trouble finding developers) but maybe I'm wrong? Maybe people don't want more than widgets on their phones and the explosion of web2.0 "ports" to the Pre will secure it a place in smartphone history. But to stick one's head in the sand and say "my webapp can do anything your objc or java app can because it's revolutionary..." Well, that continues to be untrue.