webOS is here! If you’re unfamiliar with the term, it’s the name of the development platform that powers the Palm Pre. Unlike the iPhone (which requires esoteric knowledge of Objective-C and Cocoa), webOS uses web technologies like JavaScript/Prototype, CSS and HTML5. This makes it really easy for web developers to pick up and develop on the phone.
The only snag I’ve run into on my MacBook Pro is that the novacom service isn’t started automatically when you launch the emulator.
This error message greets you when you first run the Palm emulator.
The problem is the service/daemon that the emulator depends on has some wonky permissions, well technically they’re called ‘dubious’. So they get refused when the installer script does its clean up. You can start the daemon manually with /opt/bin/novacomd — but that gets annoying after a while. So to fix it you simply need to enter the following two commands in your terminal:
$ sudo chmod 644 /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.palm.novacomd $ sudo /opt/nova/bin/post-install.sh
The first line repairs the permissions so MacOS X doesn’t complain about any dubious looking files when you attempt to add them to launchctrl. (The root of the issue is the com.palm.novacomd cannot have write permissions for the group, which it does post-install!) The second command just re-executes the post-install script, and properly installs the service .
Now when you reboot your Mac you don’t need to remember to start-up any daemons before you begin development. Enjoy!
Running TextMate, Terminal and the Mojo SDK (running VirtualBox) with the Palm Inspector
You can learn more about how to get started developing below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXS3SQauwPE (O’Reilly video)
“Unlike the iPhone (which requires esoteric knowledge of Objective-C and Cocoa)”
Actually the iPhone, and more specifically Safari, are quite happy to allow you to create your application using HTML5, CSS, JavaScript and such. In fact, the web programming interfaces for the iPhone were originally the ONLY way to write iPhone applications.
For more information, visit http://developer.apple.com/safari/
Yes, but to run as a native app? Maybe that’s so – but all the web apps I’ve seen for the iPhone run inside Safari. webOS’s native apps are written in JavaScript.
THANK you…your information has finally allowed me to download all the Homebrew Applications!!!
Thanks for posting the fix!
Hi,
I was running fine on Mac OS X Leopard. Just upgraded to snow leopard and now I get this error about the novacom service not running. I tried the permanent fix shown here – but no difference. Here’s the output I see from running the manual command….
localhost:~ duncan$ sudo /opt/nova/bin/novacomd
[2009/9/3 16:30:17] novacomd version novacomd-62 starting…
[2009/9/3 16:30:17] sending options to existing novacomd process
localhost:~ duncan$
Anyone else seen this ?
regards
Duncan.
I’ve started building up a little TextMate Bundle for Palm Pre development. Yet, it’s not feature-rich in any kind but already eases development at least a tiny bit.
Just take a look at it: http://www.devilx.net/2009/11/11/palm-pre-development-bundle-for-textmate/
Enjoy!
When I run the scripts I get this…
Last login: Thu Jan 28 13:51:27 on ttys000
Macintosh-3:~ mark$ $ sudo chmod 644 /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.palm.novacomd
-bash: $: command not found
Please help