Ah yes, web apps… So how do web apps help with our hero’s conundrum ?
Planet maemo: category "feed:f69c53e75954102a301a37ce469c5d7e"
The foremost reason which led me down this track was finding out that creating native GUI apps for maemo devices is really not that simple. It’s getting better all the time, nothing like back in 2005, but for the intended audience of this series it may still be not quite there.
We’ll keep this one mercifully short — it’s just a glorified TOC, after all.
Yesterday I used the Berlin presentation’s tagline as a starting point for the introduction, but didn’t actually mention its title :
“The case for self-hosted web apps with Python and web2py“
That, in a nutshell, was the point I came to advocate. Three points, actually.
Say that you have had some previous experience with programming, on one or several “standard” platforms : Windows, Mac, desktop or server Linux… Then you buy a tablet, and you logically expect to be able to get your own programs running on it. Only it’s not that simple.
If your program can be made to work as a Web application (which means quite a lot of stuff, these days), I suggest that is the fastest and easiest way to achieve your goal : to benefit from what your program does, in your pocket everywhere you go. Of course, for the app to be available even when not online, the web app server must also reside on the tablet.
Then you need to choose a language in which to program your web app server. I’ll propose a number of reasons why Python seems a natural choice in this context.
Lastly there is the matter of whether to use a “web framework”, and which one. Technically you don’t have to, but I’ll describe why I believe it’s a good idea in this case, and why I think web2py fits in well with the rest.
In all three points there will be “human factor” arguments (like my own personal preferences, or motives I think should be common to all “in between the cracks” types), and more technical ones (either generic, or specific to the tablets). I’ll try to make clear which is which… but in the end it’s still advocacy :-)
Meanwhile, happy Halloween !
So, let’s get this started. This first series will consist in a write-up of the talk I gave last year at the very first Maemo Summit in Berlin.
Ten years ago I swore I would never create a blog just to abandon it a while later, like everybody else. And up to now I’d held my oath.
This is only here because Jaffa suggested I should. Good for my Karma, he says. Enough banter on t.m.o, time to leave a trace, etc.
Well, we’ll see. At the very least I’ll do a mini-series about my pet peeve, based on my presentation at last year’s Maemo Summit in Berlin (couldn’t attend this year, sadly).
In between the cracks, of course.
After that… well, maybe I’ll have an N900 then, and as Maemo will be evolving towards Qt, PyQt should be the next natural thing…
- Note : in case you wandered in here by accident and are wondering what this gibberish is all about, the aptly-named About page explains all.