More screenshots of PalmSource's ALP demo

cervezas · 02-22-2006, 06:23 PM

Russian site Mobile-Review has leaked more screenshots of the ALP demo that PalmSource gave at 3GSM in Barcelona last week.

Both PalmInfocenter.com and LinuxDevices.com appear to have misindentified what some of the screenshots represent. I'll give my impressions of what we're looking at here, which I grant you are still only best guesses based on the limited information I have.

This first screenshot does indeed appear to be a launcher, although, as we'll see in a moment, it's almost certainly not the launcher application written against ALP's native application framework, codenamed MAX. It's probably something put together just for the demo, which is of a very early version of ALP.

All agree that this screenshot shows the legacy Palm OS MemoPad application running in ALP's built-in Palm OS emulator. This is not to be confused with POSE, the Palm OS emulator that runs on the Windows desktop. It's a different animal, although it will perform much the same function: to enable software written for Palm OS to run without modification on a different OS, in this case Linux.

According to the Russian site, this third screenshot is not a Java game as LinuxDevices.com reports, but a native GTK+ "MineSweeper" game. GTK+ is one of the two most popular Linux toolkits for developing graphical user interfaces and is used in the Nokia 770's Maemo platform as well as the GPE palmtop Linux system. ALP was announced as running native GTK+ applications in addition to legacy Palm OS apps, Java apps, and applications developed specifically for the new MAX framework.

If you go by the Russian site, this fourth image is not a native MAX application as Palm Infocenter reports, but a Java MIDlet running inside a MAX shell. Even that is probably not a very accurate description. PalmSource engineer David Fedor recently explained on the Palm Entrepreneur's Forum that the MAX framework will be designed to "float above" applications that are written against APIs other than MAX, enabling the user to interact with the device via some of the navigation functionality that MAX provides even when you're not running a MAX application. You'll notice a toolbar across the top of the screen in this image that appears to have buttons for accessing other applications. MAX is supposed to provide easy ways to view and switch between different running applications without resorting to the stylus and touchscreen. From these pictures it's my guess that the "float above" feature of MAX hasn't been implemented yet for Palm OS or GTK applications.

The fact that we don't see this toolbar in the first image is (in addition to the fact that the icons are stupidly large!) what leads me to believe it has nothing to do with the MAX application launcher. The launcher was described as enabling all apps on the device to be viewed and launched from a single interface regardless of what API was used to develop them, and this seems to be designed with something similar in mind, but that's about all you can say about it.

In short, I don't think we really have anything here that gives a good idea yet of how MAX will look or work. We'll just have to wait--either for better leaked pictures or an official release of MAX screenshots. If PalmSource isn't releasing screenshots themselves, you can bet it's because they know things are going to look different when ALP ships around the end of the year.

Here's LinuxDevices.com's write-up: http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS7558035858.html

Antoine of MMM · 02-22-2006, 07:01 PM

I didnt know that you wrote here now David, tis a nice explaination that you have going here as well. Neat. Thanks for the insight.

cervezas · 02-22-2006, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Antoine of MMM

I didnt know that you wrote here now David, tis a nice explaination that you have going here as well. Neat. Thanks for the insight.

I've been posting here from time to time, but I'm planning to contribute more often. The signal-to-noise ratio here is a lot higher than Palm Infocenter.

Bob Russell · 02-22-2006, 07:16 PM

Really excellent writeup David!
Hope to see more analysis from you as we get more bits and pieces of what's coming!

When I saw that first screen, I was thinking it was less likely to be a "real" launcher also. It seemed like more of a quick launch screen for a developer. Maybe even to access program categories by type... POS = PalmOS emulation; GTK = GTK; Bullseye = MAX?; Wrench = Tools apps.

doctorow · 02-22-2006, 07:19 PM

I must confess, I was very sceptical about the announcement of ALP - I thought it was nothing more than vaporware - but then I just saw these screenshots and read David's commentary. Looks all very much more promising! If these are fully working demos, which I hope is true, I wonder why it'd take almost another year to release the SDKs.

cervezas · 02-22-2006, 07:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BobR

Wrench = Tools apps.

Or perhaps Wrench = "initiate self destruct sequence" in the event the device is about to fall into the hands of Russian spies. If so, that feature still needs work.

Rest assured, the angry mob of Palm OS users, still burned about Palm OS Cobalt, will latch onto that silly launcher picture as evidence that their beloved OS is going to hell in a hand-basket. I can see the torches being lit and the pitchforks coming out already over there on PIC!

cervezas · 02-22-2006, 07:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by doctorow

I wonder why it'd take almost another year to release the SDKs.

Well, there's a lot more to a polished OS than just getting a couple of simple applications to run in a demo. A complete OS must support hundreds of APIs that wouldn't necessarily be exercised in any of these demos. And while many of the concepts behind the MAX framework have been in development almost since PalmSource first started working on the Linux version of their OS, the announcement at 3GSM reveals a major change of course that I think was only finalized when the acquisition was completed in November. PalmSource has now decided to shed most of their proprietary system components in favor of open source ones.

For example, until recently they'd been using a graphical user interface engine that they acquired from Be called Picasso. Picasso has been around since development began on Palm OS Cobalt, but it's gone now--replaced by GTK+. Likewise the proprietary schema database API that was supposed to be brought over from Cobalt is gone and replaced by an open source database engine called SQLite (which I think will be a very welcome change, by the way). Also gone are most of the PalmSource developers who worked on these proprietary components. Remember Dianne Hackborn? She's at Google now. PalmSource is hiring like crazy as I write this.

I believe there are still big decisions about how ALP will work that at the time of the demo had not been hammered out completely. One I'm aware of is the question of whether ALP will run X Windows like the Nokia 770 does, or should they develop a lighter weight windowing toolkit that will perform better? X Windows would make it easier to port applications from other Linux platforms and would be more in line with the new thrust away from proprietary solutions, but at the moment it's pretty heavy and slow on a resource-constrained device. That's a pretty fundamental question.

Some of the other things that take time before you can release an SDK: making sure all the APIs you're creating are things you believe you can stick with well into the future, getting the developer tools ready, writing all the documentation, writing the MAX native applications that will serve not only as part of the ROM image delivered to customers, but as sample code for developers to use.

I know very few of the details, of course, but my guess is there's a lot left to do. Even though everyone is egging them on to hurry, my hope is that they really take their time and get it right. It's only because of tremendous forethought that the original Palm OS held up as well as it did over generations of new devices. They need to put the same kind of forethought into ALP if they want the platform to succeed the same way.

cervezas · 02-22-2006, 08:09 PM

Heh, if your Russian's a little rusty as mine is you can cheat and read the English version here: http://mobile-review.com/exhibition/...-2006-en.shtml

Chaos · 02-22-2006, 08:19 PM

One thing that annoys me (although the idea and implementation look good), is that they're going with GTK+, like both GPE and Maemo. GTK+ is a good choice in my mind, but there's a problem...

I'm willing to bet there will be subtle differences between all three of those that will make porting applications between the three of them a necessity, as opposed to being able to run the same code on all three. In fact, I'm almost certain that GPE applications have to be modified to run on Maemo, and vice-versa. Same with normal GTK+ applications - they need to be modified (rather heavily?) to run on either GPE or Maemo. And I bet PalmSource's ALP will be no different...

Of course it will still be much easier to port applications between these three and even desktop GTK+ than it would be to port, say, a GTK+ application to Palm OS 5 or WM5.

02-22-2006, 06:23 PM	#1
cervezas palm & java hacker Posts: 52 Karma: 251 Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Manitou Springs, CO Device: Visor, T3, i500, iQue ...	More screenshots of PalmSource's ALP demo Russian site Mobile-Review has leaked more screenshots of the ALP demo that PalmSource gave at 3GSM in Barcelona last week. Both PalmInfocenter.com and LinuxDevices.com appear to have misindentified what some of the screenshots represent. I'll give my impressions of what we're looking at here, which I grant you are still only best guesses based on the limited information I have. This first screenshot does indeed appear to be a launcher, although, as we'll see in a moment, it's almost certainly not the launcher application written against ALP's native application framework, codenamed MAX. It's probably something put together just for the demo, which is of a very early version of ALP. All agree that this screenshot shows the legacy Palm OS MemoPad application running in ALP's built-in Palm OS emulator. This is not to be confused with POSE, the Palm OS emulator that runs on the Windows desktop. It's a different animal, although it will perform much the same function: to enable software written for Palm OS to run without modification on a different OS, in this case Linux. According to the Russian site, this third screenshot is not a Java game as LinuxDevices.com reports, but a native GTK+ "MineSweeper" game. GTK+ is one of the two most popular Linux toolkits for developing graphical user interfaces and is used in the Nokia 770's Maemo platform as well as the GPE palmtop Linux system. ALP was announced as running native GTK+ applications in addition to legacy Palm OS apps, Java apps, and applications developed specifically for the new MAX framework. If you go by the Russian site, this fourth image is not a native MAX application as Palm Infocenter reports, but a Java MIDlet running inside a MAX shell. Even that is probably not a very accurate description. PalmSource engineer David Fedor recently explained on the Palm Entrepreneur's Forum that the MAX framework will be designed to "float above" applications that are written against APIs other than MAX, enabling the user to interact with the device via some of the navigation functionality that MAX provides even when you're not running a MAX application. You'll notice a toolbar across the top of the screen in this image that appears to have buttons for accessing other applications. MAX is supposed to provide easy ways to view and switch between different running applications without resorting to the stylus and touchscreen. From these pictures it's my guess that the "float above" feature of MAX hasn't been implemented yet for Palm OS or GTK applications. The fact that we don't see this toolbar in the first image is (in addition to the fact that the icons are stupidly large!) what leads me to believe it has nothing to do with the MAX application launcher. The launcher was described as enabling all apps on the device to be viewed and launched from a single interface regardless of what API was used to develop them, and this seems to be designed with something similar in mind, but that's about all you can say about it. In short, I don't think we really have anything here that gives a good idea yet of how MAX will look or work. We'll just have to wait--either for better leaked pictures or an official release of MAX screenshots. If PalmSource isn't releasing screenshots themselves, you can bet it's because they know things are going to look different when ALP ships around the end of the year. Here's LinuxDevices.com's write-up: http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS7558035858.html Last edited by cervezas; 02-22-2006 at 07:16 PM. Reason: wacky grammar

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02-22-2006, 07:01 PM	#2
Antoine of MMM Mobile Ministry Magazine Posts: 119 Karma: 4507 Join Date: May 2005 Location: Charlotte, NC Device: Nokia N75/N800 Internet Tablet	I didnt know that you wrote here now David, tis a nice explaination that you have going here as well. Neat. Thanks for the insight.

02-22-2006, 07:16 PM	#4
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	Really excellent writeup David! Hope to see more analysis from you as we get more bits and pieces of what's coming! When I saw that first screen, I was thinking it was less likely to be a "real" launcher also. It seemed like more of a quick launch screen for a developer. Maybe even to access program categories by type... POS = PalmOS emulation; GTK = GTK; Bullseye = MAX?; Wrench = Tools apps.

02-22-2006, 07:19 PM	#5
doctorow Guru Posts: 914 Karma: 3410461 Join Date: May 2004 Device: Kindle Touch	I must confess, I was very sceptical about the announcement of ALP - I thought it was nothing more than vaporware - but then I just saw these screenshots and read David's commentary. Looks all very much more promising! If these are fully working demos, which I hope is true, I wonder why it'd take almost another year to release the SDKs.

02-22-2006, 08:09 PM	#8
cervezas palm & java hacker Posts: 52 Karma: 251 Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Manitou Springs, CO Device: Visor, T3, i500, iQue ...	Heh, if your Russian's a little rusty as mine is you can cheat and read the English version here: http://mobile-review.com/exhibition/...-2006-en.shtml

02-22-2006, 08:19 PM	#9
Chaos Evangelist Posts: 418 Karma: 281 Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Canada Device: Assorted older devices	One thing that annoys me (although the idea and implementation look good), is that they're going with GTK+, like both GPE and Maemo. GTK+ is a good choice in my mind, but there's a problem... I'm willing to bet there will be subtle differences between all three of those that will make porting applications between the three of them a necessity, as opposed to being able to run the same code on all three. In fact, I'm almost certain that GPE applications have to be modified to run on Maemo, and vice-versa. Same with normal GTK+ applications - they need to be modified (rather heavily?) to run on either GPE or Maemo. And I bet PalmSource's ALP will be no different... Of course it will still be much easier to port applications between these three and even desktop GTK+ than it would be to port, say, a GTK+ application to Palm OS 5 or WM5.

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