n00b Dev - How to get started?

[aitikin]

So I've been trying to convince myself to get back into the coding game, and, with all the recent Enyo developments and my love of webOS, it seems that I should learn how to code for my (beloved) TouchPad.

Now, the issue arises that the last time I coded for anything was approximately ten years ago and I was only doing mostly basic, not very graphical, C++ coding. I'm asking here for advice as to where to get started and what to get started with. Although it's not directly coding oriented, I am enrolled in the (free) Standford CS101 course, but I know I need more.

My end all be all goal right now is to be able to code a remote control for Ardour, possibly other DAWs as well (Pro Tools, Logic, Nuendo, etc).

Any advice will be appreciated.

[eblade]

https://developer.palm.com/content/r..._tutorial.html

[GreenHex]

webOS/ Enyo is a dead platform. Wouldn't you be better-off starting with Windows 8 or (ugh!) Android or (yuck!) iPoo?

I say this as an active webOS developer.

[eblade]

I take it you missed the whole "Enyo is open source" and "dozens of apps made with Enyo are starting to appear in other app markets"? And the "Enyo 2.0 is work in progress, and is also open source"? hmm..

Write for Enyo, and you can pretty much write for anything. Especially once someone figures out the magic to making vertical scrolling happen reasonably on other platforms.

[GreenHex]

Originally Posted by eblade

I take it you missed the whole "Enyo is open source"

{ "rolleyes": true }

Originally Posted by eblade

and "dozens of apps made with Enyo are starting to appear in other app markets"? And the "Enyo 2.0 is work in progress, and is also open source"? hmm..

As much as I'd like Enyo to be a great success (just like everybody else here) the probability of that happening is the same as the probability of me becoming rich. The whole "opensource" thingy is a face-saving mechanism for HP for something that they want to ditch and run away as far as possible. But this has been discussed before. Everyone has an opinion and believe in something different.

[eblade]

Well, regardless of anyone's feeling in that matter -- Enyo is a Javascript framework, much like many of the other quite commonly used Js frameworks out there, that makes it quite easy to build mobile apps with a little bit of programming knowledge and not much else. And the license that it has been released under, means that you can use it for as long as you want, wherever you want.

You could just write your apps in straight Javascript/HTML if you want, though. But then you need a lot more knowledge of the HTML/CSS/etc.

[Maverickz]

I have been considering deploying Enyo 2.0 on my personal web server and developing my web content/pages with it.

[autodidact]

Originally Posted by Maverickz

I have been considering deploying Enyo 2.0 on my personal web server and developing my web content/pages with it.

I've had the same thought. It's an interesting proposition having a uniform experience for an app available for mobiles, tablet and the desktop.

[aitikin]

Well my goal here isn't exactly to be making apps for sales. My real world goal is to give myself some apps that I probably could get on another platform, but I'm not going to dump another couple hundred bucks on a new device anytime soon. I like my TouchPad and I could see continually using it even after it's considered woefully obsolete so long as I have the applications I want and or need for it.

The remote control would be one of the apps that I could justify holding on to my device forever for, but I need a decent knowledge of the innards of this OS and coding for it.

[filmor_]

You could also play around with C++ on webOS. You can build some very portable code with it, since about every interaction is done with the SDL, which runs on every (useful) platform I know of

[khazoury]

Originally Posted by aitikin

Well my goal here isn't exactly to be making apps for sales. My real world goal is to give myself some apps that I probably could get on another platform, but I'm not going to dump another couple hundred bucks on a new device anytime soon. I like my TouchPad and I could see continually using it even after it's considered woefully obsolete so long as I have the applications I want and or need for it.

The remote control would be one of the apps that I could justify holding on to my device forever for, but I need a decent knowledge of the innards of this OS and coding for it.

I'm like you and have been thinking the same. I use my Touchpad & my Sprintified Pre2 for just about everything. I rarely use my Vista laptop or Linux desktop anymore. Writing an app or two that I might need in the future is what I have mind. Writing for an OS I never plan on using (Android, iOS, Windows) doesn't seem like a viable solution either.

[khazoury]

Originally Posted by GreenHex

webOS/ Enyo is a dead platform. Wouldn't you be better-off starting with Windows 8 or (ugh!) Android or (yuck!) iPoo?

I say this as an active webOS developer.

huh?

[eblade]

Originally Posted by aitikin

Well my goal here isn't exactly to be making apps for sales. My real world goal is to give myself some apps that I probably could get on another platform, but I'm not going to dump another couple hundred bucks on a new device anytime soon. I like my TouchPad and I could see continually using it even after it's considered woefully obsolete so long as I have the applications I want and or need for it.

The remote control would be one of the apps that I could justify holding on to my device forever for, but I need a decent knowledge of the innards of this OS and coding for it.

Sounds like all the best reasons to start!

[ShiftyAxel]

Bringing this thread back on track with a loud KER-CHUNK, I'd say have a look at the following:
Developing Enyo Applications
Enyo API Reference

I managed to learn Enyo in a week (I'm a Games Tech uni student with a fairly good knowledge of programming) using those docs, they could explain stuff a bit better in places, but they work (Evidence in my sig- WiFi File Sharing was the app i made while learning). The API reference is good for finding out what you can do with the various Kinds that Enyo provides too.

[aitikin]

Thanks for all the tips. Now, the bigger issue is following through with it (I have a small tendency to take on too much and never quite finish...).

[ShiftyAxel]

That's a tendency I share many, many a project has been started and forgotten over my programming career.
My advice: Make something you want. If there's an app you want for your phone, work on that and you'll have a good drive to finish it.

[aitikin]

The problem isn't finding the program that I want to do, I know those, it's gathering the skill set to make said program. I took some programming courses when I was in high school and I was always the first or second one done with any assignments, but I haven't done any coding since then, outside of the occasional script. I still think code (if blah blah, else if blah blah, you get the point), I just don't have the experience or the working knowledge (and, until today, a functional compiler except in Gentoo, and I don't count that as it's just part of Portage to me...).

[Maverickz]

I find the best way to learn a new skill set is to just start using it. Identify what the most fundamental thing your app needs to do and code that first, then layer on the next piece. There is a decent Enyo2.0 tutorial that does this, that you might look at.

http://enyojs.com/tutorial/