Visual Studio for HP webOS

A Visual Studio–style IDE written as a real Mojo application for legacy HP/Palm webOS (Pre, Pixi, TouchPad). It follows the authentic Palm SDK app structure — appinfo.json, sources.json, stage/scene assistants, Mojo views — and packages into a .ipk with palm-package.

Everything is written in ES3/ES5-safe JavaScript (no let/const, no Array#indexOf/forEach, no Object.keys, keyCode-based key handling) so it runs on the JavaScriptCore shipped with webOS 1.x–3.x.

App layout (Mojo conventions)

appinfo.json              Mojo application descriptor
icon.png                  64x64 launcher icon
index.html                Mojo bootstrap (loads /usr/palm/frameworks/mojo/mojo.js)
sources.json              packaged source manifest (load order + scene mapping)
framework_config.json     Mojo framework flags
package.sh                palm-package/palm-install/palm-launch wrapper
app/
  assistants/
    stage-assistant.js    app entry point — pushes the main scene
    main-assistant.js     scene owner: app menu, dialogs, IDE host wiring
    newfile-dialog-assistant.js
  views/
    main/main-scene.html      scene template hosting #vs-root
    dialogs/newfile-dialog.html
js/
  ide.js                  the IDE engine (VS2010-style chrome, editor, build,
                          error list, device emulator)
  projects.js             bundled sample solution
lib/
  mojo-shim.js            development shim — minimal Mojo implementation for
                          desktop browsers; no-ops when real mojo.js is present
stylesheets/
  visualstudio.css
tools/
  pdk-build.sh            native build helper (arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc)
templates/
  pdk-standalone/         standalone PDK app template (SDL/PDL)
  pdk-hybrid/             hybrid Mojo + PDK plugin template

Mojo APIs used

• StageAssistant / pushScene("main") — standard Mojo bootstrap
• Mojo.Menu.appMenu — app menu with About item (handleCommand / Mojo.Event.command)
• Mojo.Model.Cookie — solution persistence (the Palm cookie store)
• this.controller.showAlertDialog / showDialog — About and Add New File
• Mojo.Event.listen / Mojo.Event.tap — widget event wiring

Build a package

Requires the legacy webOS SDK on your PATH (HP webOS SDK 3.0.x, or a community fork such as webosbrew/webOS-Ports):

./package.sh            # builds dist/com.communitypoke.visualstudio_1.0.0_all.ipk
./package.sh install    # + palm-install onto a device or the Palm emulator
./package.sh launch     # + palm-launch

If the SDK isn't installed, the script explains what's needed and exits without failing builds.

Develop in a desktop browser

lib/mojo-shim.js provides a minimal Mojo surface (cookie store, scene loading, dialogs, event helpers) so the app boots without a device:

python3 -m http.server 8000
# open http://localhost:8000

On a real device, /usr/palm/frameworks/mojo/mojo.js loads and the shim detects window.Mojo and does nothing.

The IDE

• Menu bar (File / Edit / View / Project / Build / Debug / Help) and toolbar
• Solution Explorer — sample projects of all three kinds; click a project node to make it the startup project. [PDK]/[HYBRID] tags mark native and hybrid projects.
• Tabbed editor with syntax highlighting (JS, C, Makefile, JSON, HTML), line numbers, dirty markers
• F6 Build — for Mojo projects, parse-checks JS and emits VS-style output plus a clickable Error List. For PDK/hybrid projects the build is simulated: it echoes the real arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc command lines and runs lightweight source checks (a cross-compile can't happen inside a webOS app).
• Ctrl+F5 Run — Mojo projects execute in a sandbox inside an emulated Pre frame (main(device) with device.setTitle, addLabel, addButton, addDivider, captured console). Native projects instead show the real deploy command — running ARM code needs a device or the Palm emulator.
• Edits persist via Mojo.Model.Cookie

Palm PDK (native C/C++)

The repo ships real PDK project support — see templates/README.md:

• templates/pdk-standalone — standalone native app skeleton (type: "pdk", PDL_Init + SDL 1.2 event loop, Makefile driven by arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc; OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0 libs wired in)
• templates/pdk-hybrid — hybrid Mojo + PDK app: a Mojo scene embedding a native plugin via <object type="application/x-palm-plugin">, with the plugin source compiled into native/plugin inside the same .ipk
• tools/pdk-build.sh <dir> — invokes the cross toolchain; requires the PDK ($PalmPDK/arm-gcc/bin on PATH). --host-check <dir> runs a host-gcc syntax check instead and clearly labels itself as producing no device binary.
• package.sh <dir> auto-detects a Makefile, builds native code first when the toolchain is present (warns and continues for packaging-only when it isn't), then runs palm-package.
• The IDE's NativeCube and HybridCounter sample projects show the same structure so the workflow is explorable on-device.

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CommunityPokeOrg — for Wolfy, who wanted Visual Studio on webOS for real.