HP purchases Palm, Inc.

[Seth Morabito]

Word has just come out that HP has purchased Palm, Inc. for $1.2 Billion.

PC Magazine announcement of the purchase is here.

Of course I have no idea how (or even if) this will impact calculator development, but I thought it worthy of a little note here. I think that Palm's WebOS is an interesting platform in its own right.

[BobVA]

Conversely perhaps we'll see the HP-15C emulator ported to WebOS (puh-leeze!)

Bob

[hugh steers]

WebOS was all java iirc, that's when i knew it wasn't really going to work. not that im against java, it's just that it closes out everything else. for example your C/C++ calculator codebase.

it's a shame, because some of palm's old products were really very innovative for their time.

[Pal G.]

Hugh,

Android applications are written in the Java programming language. And I have an HP48GX emulator running on my Droid.

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/fundamentals.html

http://www.androidzoom.com/android_applications/productivity/droid48_wex.html

This doesn't mean I understand why HP would buy Palm.

[hugh steers]

not all of them. you can write native code apps now in android. what you need is this choice. for example, you might want to use a native code library that you've already developed and build a java front end. if _everything_ has to be in java, you cant do that.

google have made their java fast through their own dalvik virtual machine. they needed to change the way some of the java compiled code works. for example, making method dispatch more efficient. so dalvik java binaries are not the same as regular .class files. also it's a register based architecture not stack based.

so what im saying is that google have spent effort to make java good enough for their mobile system, but webOS didnt have this and it didnt have a native code option either.

is droid48, in fact, a native app? it's based on the X48 source code which is in C.

??

Edited: 28 Apr 2010, 7:37 p.m.

[Jonathan Eisch]

Quote:

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it's a shame, because some of palm's old products were really very innovative for their time.

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Same with BeOS, which HP now presumably owns. But that's kinda 10 years too late.

[Jonathan Purvis (New Zealand)]

Quote:

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WebOS was all java iirc

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WebOS is actually all JavaScript/HTML. Unlike the iPhone, you can access all the hardware (eg GPS) from JavaScript and can have installable JavaScript applications.

There is also a native SDK, but i'm not sure if it has been publicly released yet.

[Bruce Bergman]

HTML, Javascript and CSS actually. That's the base platform tools for the WebOS development system.

That being said, there is a native option (can't remember the code name right now) that many of the game developers are using (GameLoft, for example). These games are on par, or better than, those that are out for the iPhone.

BTW, lest you be smitten otherwise, Objective-C is a PIA to deal with. ;-)

Thanks,

Bruce

[Egan Ford]

Quote:

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Unlike the iPhone, you can access all the hardware (eg GPS) from JavaScript and can have installable JavaScript applications.

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iPhone OS 3.0 allows the browser to access HW, e.g.: http://www.thecssninja.com/javascript/geolocation-iphone.

And you can install browser-based apps. E.g. Gmail.

[Bruce Bergman]

WebOS does Flash.

'nuff said. :-)

[John Stark]

Gentlemen:

They want to be in the phone business.

Next thing you know, HP will buy up a cable-TV outfit. :)

My $0.02.

John Stark