Palm webOS PDK

The Plug-In Development Kit (PDK) is a new component of the webOS SDK that lets developers use C and C++ alongside the web technologies that power the SDK, and even mix them seamlessly within a single application. The PDK brings new functionality to webOS, including immersive 3D graphics, and gives developers who have built games for other platforms an easy way to bring their titles to the webOS platform.

The webOS PDK takes its name from the way that C / C++ components integrate into webOS applications. The webOS platform is built on standard web technologies, with an application environment built on the WebKit browser engine. Components built with the PDK plug in to webOS apps using the same mechanism that supports desktop browser plug-ins.

Palm has created the webOS Plug-in Development Kit with the following objectives: · Easy porting of C/C++ applications to webOS, including those that use OpenGL ES 1.1 or 2.0 · Easy integration of C/C++ components to enhance the capabilities of webOS applications

This Palm PDK will offer you the possibility to develop and test your apps on your host computer as well as on the device itself.

The webOS Plug-In Development Kit is built on the following technologies: · GCC for compiling C/C++ code to ARM native code. Palm devices use ARM (Advanced RISC Machine) processors running an embedded Linux OS. · OpenGL ES 1.1 or 2.0 — A standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API (> 250 functions) for writing applications producing 2D and 3D computer graphics. · Simple DirectMedia Library (SDL) — A free, cross-platform, open source software multimedia library (written in C) designed to provide low-level access to audio, keyboard, mouse, joystick, 3D hardware via OpenGL ES, and a 2D video frame buffer. In addition to the SDL core library, the following separate, but officially recognized and supported libraries, are also included: * SDL_image — Support for multiple image formats * SDL_mixer — Complex audio functions, mainly for sound mixing * SDL_ttf — TrueType font rendering support * SDL_net — Networking support · Palm Development Library (PDL) — A library of functions that extend SDL capabilities specifically for Palm devices. · SDL_cinema — Palm functions required for playing video on the device.

Desktop development You can build and test applications using the code libraries that are installed with the PDK. For testing, desktop versions of all libraries are provided. This allows you to develop and debug your applications from within your preferred Integrated Development Environment (IDE) such as Visual Studio and Xcode. You can use your IDE as a preliminary development environment before testing on the device itself. Apps built in the IDE and launched on the desktop can do the following: · Emulate input events using the keyboard or a joystick · Receive single, multi-touch, and accelerometer events · Access the network · Play audio

Device development The device webOS contains, for run-time, the same libraries that you can use in desktop development. The PDK contains tools you can use for packaging, installing, testing and debugging your app on the device.