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Time For a Hobbyist Smartphone?

Posted by Soulskill on from the grassroots-tricorder dept.

theodp writes "Over at Scripting News, Dave Winer has a hobbyist phone on his wish list. Innovative phone manufacturers, Winer suggests, should 'make a smart phone with a really great scripting language, with all kinds of scriptable tools on board. Instead of disallowing scripting, disallow apps that can't be scripted. Make a great simple programming environment that runs on desktops or laptops that plugs right in, but it should also be easy to write scripts on the phone itself. Dave concludes, 'We've already seen the Jobs phone. Now it's time for Woz's.' Having ditched App Inventor, it would appear that Google isn't interested. Microsoft Research has the idea, if not the right implementation, with TouchDevelop (video). Any other existing or in-the-works projects that might fit the bill?"

7 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. Nokia? by amiga3D · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Too bad Nokia quit making fun phones. The last was the N900. I'd love to have a new phone similar to that with modern specs.

  2. Android + QPython3 by Btrot69 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I recently defected from iOS and I'm having great fun with an android app called QPython.
    Docs are still a bit spotty, but with a few lines of Python I can do all sorts of things with the Android API.

  3. Current programming tools suck, that's why. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That's true for current methods of developing software. Which is typing in code.

    Programming hasn't changed very much in 50 or so years. And I think it's ludicrous that we're using a language to prgram a computer to do mathematical operations.

    What we really need is a symbolic programming "language" and it would rock on a touch screen.

    Why not go directly from dragging and dropping logic to machine code directly? There is no physcal law that says we have to program computers the way we do now.

    These "verbal" type of programming languages are so 20th century, inefficient and just old fashioned. Their time has passed.

    1. Re:Current programming tools suck, that's why. by snookerdoodle · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You do know this is a True Holy Grail that people have been trying to build for a long, long time, right? Object orientation was, at least partially, supposed to be a step in this direction.

      I think Smalltalk had promise (and still does), but it seems I'm the only person who actually likes it. :)

      I think LOGO kinda sparks people's imaginations. I remember a product called "Object Center" on our Sparcs in the 80s or 90s that was really just a class browser. Then I saw Interface Builder on a NeXT and thought that was gonna be it. But it has turned out to be really, really hard.

      You would be a hero if you developed a working, practical, usable graphical (which I think you mean by "symbolic") programming language.

      Mark

    2. Re:Current programming tools suck, that's why. by AJH16 · · Score: 4, Informative

      You mean like the literally DOZENS if not hundreds of flowchart programming languages that have tried it before and failed outright because it simply isn't an easy format for us to follow the logic from when designing complex logic?

      --
      AJ Henderson
  4. Isn't the Android platform hobbyist-enough? by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 4, Insightful

    To me, the Android platform was close enough. It's "just" Java (if you can't figure out Java...), there are no fees required to get the development environment or simulators set up, Android devices and phones are available new for as little as $60 (and cheaper as people upgrade). So...to me, Android IS a hobby-friendly environment.

  5. OpenWebOS is still around... by zullnero · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's currently in a second Alpha state (if you're pulling the latest binaries, probably further along) and runs on a Samsung Galaxy Nexus (couple other profiles too). It's fully open source at this point, and even though supposedly LG wants to use it for TVs or something, there's a group that's been working on it for awhile ever since it was divulged from HPs hands. There are also efforts underway to emulate Android apps on the platform. The community also greatly appreciates anyone enthusiastic enough to contribute. You can find everything at webOSInternals. I still use a webOS phone as my daily device mainly because it does the things I need it to do very well (and other platforms come with way too many strings attached for me).

    If you want a hobbyist platform that the big platforms still steal ideas from...there you go. That's the epitome of a hobbyist platform. The scripting is all html/css/javascript using the Enyo framework. It's all open standards and there are plenty of tools that were built by Palm and later HP.