Re: Let's get those android and iphone developers
 

Anyone making further suggestions that ECMA script is a viable basis for apps (let alone a platform) and superior to (insert any language) will be subject to death by grue. :p

Regarding PalmOS: there are a number of emulators for Garnet OS around. I think the lack of killer app for Palm that doesn't exist on Maemo is why they aren't used more.

Re: Let's get those android and iphone developers
 

JavaScript is well supported on the maemo browser, so you could code apps with HTML/CSS/JavaScript.

JavaScript is not an object-oriented language though. It's object-based, which is a little bit different. It has some weird concepts, too. It might be easy to learn but hard to comprehend the more advanced stuff. :)

Re: Let's get those android and iphone developers
 

Umm, excuse me? It wasn't implied anywhere that I use a GUI to generate HTML.


'Easier' is a matter of experience and skill. They're all just languages that have the exact same control of flow statements, and roughly the same syntax. Generally the 'difficulty' comes not from the language, but the that you're trying to implement, and the tools available to you.

That said Javascript/DOM is not the best environment for all apps. But it's a great environment for *many* apps. It carries a number of advantages including easy development, easy testing, instant distribution, no installation, etc.

I believe the OP was referring to this when he mentioned Javascript, as its generally synonymous with browsers these days.

Uhhhh... Thanks for the tip, but no.

}:^/~

Re: Let's get those android and iphone developers
 

Oh, like any other interpreted language... Surprising.

Only with a proper GUI toolkit you can actually easily code window layouts and not document layouts like HTML is supposed to do.

And then I'd disagree on the "easy testing" part, but hey, you can code in whatever language you want...

Re: Let's get those android and iphone developers
 

Well, this is debatable. It's a prototyped language, is dynamic, and classless, so in that way it's different than traditional OOLs, but it retains the key characteristics necessary to receive the OOL designation .

The ECMA also considers ECMAScript an OOL (page 13 -- section 4); of which javascript is a dialect.

Yes, I agree, it's easy to jump into, but so incredibly dynamic, that advanced concepts can be a bit challenging to understand. But this can be said of any language, no? (consider C-pointers/objects/polymorphism/aspects/etc for the novice!)

It can also get very messy if the coder doesn't adhere to good design principles (much like C). This is where I've noticed Javascript gets a lot of slack. But it is possible to write beautiful, highly functional code.

}:^)~

Re: Let's get those android and iphone developers
 

This doesn't need to be Javascript vs Python war. There's room for them both to be easy to develop on.

Window-like layouts in a browser is a snap! Simply markup your elements in a DIV, you can even dress it up using CSS, then use Javascript to manipulate it (show/hide/rotate/opacity/width/height/position/destroy/duplicate/change contents/etc). Instant window. Honestly, it takes 1min max.

Easy in that all you have to do is hit refresh in the browser to quickly run your code. It's very forgiving for rapid prototyping/development. Again, I didn't say that python, by implication, is less easy.

I appreciate and respect your opinions. I think in this case, we've a clash of perspectives. Perhaps some day you'll get into DOM/Javascript development and grow to appreciate it. It's really quite fun and forgiving, and I'd highly recommend it!

}:^)~

Re: Let's get those android and iphone developers
 

Because that's what works when making apps. If you know how to get javascript apps to work on maemo 4 tell us all :D

Re: Let's get those android and iphone developers
 

I think he was implying that there are many other languages beyond Python for app devel on maemo. This is true, there are a whack, including command line scripting tools.

Of course, a Javascript app from the command line would be neat (if not a bit pointless given the many mature choices).

}:^)~

Re: Let's get those android and iphone developers
 

No need for a war. They can peacefully co-exist. I usually code my AJAX backend stuff in Python.

Re: Let's get those android and iphone developers
 

You mean, like that? http://puelocesar.wordpress.com/2009...ent-for-maemo/

:P