Palm webOS

A Note from the Author and from O'Reilly Media about what this bookdoes--and doesn't--do:

Palm webOS is a brand new platform and represents a very different type ofoperating system where the web runtime is used as the basis for the UI andApplication model. Palm and O'Reilly felt that it was important to have abook available to help developers get a basic understanding of the new Palmplatform at the time that the SDK was released; this timing played a majorrole in the content and structure of the book.

Ideally this book would have been a complete reference of the new platformbut that wasn't possible since the content was written at the same time asthe software SDK was being developed by the Palm engineering team. The bookdoes provide a complete overview of Palm webOS, a thorough description ofthe application model and gives details on many key design concepts. Thereare descriptions and examples of UI widgets, services, storage,notifications, dashboards and background applications, serving as a greatintroduction but not as a definitive source.

The book uses a simple News reader application to illustrate the technicaldescriptions but the examples are not intended to serve as a cookbooktutorial. Experienced developers should be able to use the examples to buildup a working application chapter by chapter but others may not find theloose descriptions adequate for recreating the application unaided. Overtime, these different needs will be filled by other books, but in themeantime we hope that this book will serve a valuable role introducingdevelopers to webOS and giving them a way of getting started with webOSapplication development.

A second printing of the book will update any original coverage obsoleted bysubsequent Mojo SDK builds. For owners of the original printing of the book,all of these updates are posted on the "View/Submit Errata" link (please seeleft-hand column of this web page).

Thanks for understanding that book publishing and coverage of rapidly movingtechnologies can sometimes be an inexact science; we knew there'd be a needfor a book such as Palm webOS: The Insider's Guide to DevelopingApplications in JavaScript using the Palm MojoT Framework, and there'scertainly no better person to write that book that Mitch Allen; that said,we understand that because it is such a new operating system and SDK, therewould (and will continue to be) changes that at best can't be documented andexplored until new printings of the books are released. In the meantime wewill be diligent in posting updates to this book's O'Reilly Media catalogpage.

Description

This is the official guide to building native JavaScript applications for Palm's new mobile operating system, Palm® webOS™. Written by Palm's software chief technology officer along with the Palm webOS development team, Palm webOS provides a complete tutorial on the design principles, architecture, UI, tools, and services necessary to develop webOS applications-including the Mojo JavaScript framework and Palm's SDK.

Palm webOS is designed to support a fast and superb user experience using established web standards, so if you're familiar with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, you're ready to build applications for any webOS-based device, including the Palm Pre. You'll gain expertise, chapter by chapter, as you build a working mobile application through the course of the book. You'll also learn how to extend existing web apps to work with the new generation of mobile phones.

• Get a thorough overview of the webOS platform and architecture
• Understand the critical concepts for application design: what separates webOS from other web and mobile platforms
• Learn the details of Mojo's development tools and SDK for building and testing mobile applications
• Examine best practices, important considerations, and guiding principles for developing with webOS and the Mojo framework

Mitch Allen is CTO of Software at Palm, Inc. where he has worked in various positions for 8 years starting with building and leading the software team at Handspring which conceived and developed the Treo smartphone. From webOS's conception to implementation, Mitch designed the early architecture of the webOS platform and led the development team through the initialdesign stage and as a result is intimately familiar with the capabilities of the platform and tools. He is currently leading the design of the developer SDK and toolsets, and working with initial developers in their use of the platform and SDK.

Previously, Mitch worked at Apple, after 15 years developing image and text processing systems at Kodak and Agfa Compugraphic. He holds a degree in Math and Computer Science from the University of New Hampshire.