Follow the Australian Telecommunications scene NEWSLETTER- FREE TRIAL
 | |
|
Technology news and Jobs 
The Linux distillery No FOSS for Palm app catalog says Netscape pioneer
The Linux distillery No FOSS for Palm app catalog says Netscape pioneer | No FOSS for Palm app catalog says Netscape pioneer |
|
| by David M Williams | |
| Thursday, 01 October 2009 | |
|
Page 1 of 2   
Featured Whitepaper
5 Best Practices for Smartphone Support
You need not look far to find developers upset with Apple’s handling of their applications. We know about Google Voice being pulled, about the Commodore 64 emulator being rejected, about the sheer uncertainty as to when updates will be made available and so forth. iPhone developers might take small comfort to learn things might not be rosier in the Palm Pre world, according to the experiences of at least one developer. Jamie Zawinski – of original UNIX Netscape Navigator and Netscape Mail and News client fame – produced two Palm Pre programs just days after the unit was available, namely a restaurant Tip Calculator and a port of Dali Clock, a digital clock whose digits melt into their next shape. Zawinski submitted the apps to Palm for inclusion in the App Catalog. He signed up online, signed and returned the necessary legal documents but to this day still finds his programs absent. Palm, Zawinski says, made him jump through dozens of hoops. First, Dali Clock 2.31 was rejected because Palm claimed it had a policy all App Catalog applications use version numbers lower than his 2.31 port. Zawinski says Palm’s policy required version numbers “less than 1.0.0” but I think it would be very odd for Palm to reject v1.0 applications. I am guessing he meant “less than 2.0” or “less than 1.1”. In any case, the surprising decision was made by Palm to reject his program solely because of its version number. Nevertheless, Zawinski complied with all the obstacles Palm put in his way. Until finally in mid-August he was told “you can only distribute your app via the Palm App Catalog. Do not make your app available on your website or anywhere other than the App Catalog.” |
| < Next story in category | Previous story in the category > |
|---|
