What? People are still developing for webOS?? You bet! pivotCE had a chance to chat with one such developer: Garfonso. Continue reading for the full interview.
I’m probably best known as Garfonso in the community, if at all. Garfonso is used…on [webOS Nation Forums], in twitter and in IRC. My real name is Achim Königs, which leads to my nick in the Palm-dev forum: AcKoenigs.
Where do you hail from?
Germany
What was your first Palm device?
Palm Pre, shortly followed by a Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus. Actually I joined webOS only in summer 2010. So I’m not a first day webOS or even Palm fan. Before the Pre(+) I was using a HTC HD2 running Windows Mobile with a much bigger screen and higher hardware specs. Still, from the first days using the Pre, I was totally spoiled and could [not] stand Windows Mobile anymore (although I liked it before and did only look at different things, because Microsoft canned Windows Mobile for Windows Phone). I was constantly trying to swipe up on the HD2…one of the main reasons, which prevent me from switching to some Android Phone. Also Android is not really an innovation when looked at from Windows Mobile, which is the saddest thing about all this…
Have you published any apps in the HP App Catalog?
None…not really. I once took part in the webOS hackathon thing, which had these weekly challenges. From that time I have this one app in the beta catalog: https://developer.palm.com/appredirect/index.php?packageid=info.mobo.hoststatusoverview
What homebrew apps have you developed?
Export Messages and Export Notes apps are published by me. Also I’m the one behind the SyncML Client. I know that people don’t really like it and it is probably not easy to use or understand as enduser… I’m not good at publishing anything. That’s why I try to hack around and support other people in getting their work done. I did some bug fixes for apps I was using and did send them to the original authors. Some made it into the software. 🙂 Currently I’m supporting webos-ports with Preware 2, a synergy carddav connector and the system update app.
Have you written any patches?
Nothing big here…the permission patches for the export apps mentioned above. Also I did some fixes on some patches [like an]…E-Mail privacy patch that prevented images from loading (but that never got finished).
What’s your daily driver phone?
My main phone is a HP Veer. I really love that small one. 🙂 I also have a spare Pre 3 lying around. Additionally I carry a Galaxy Nexus with me, which helps for one or two things that really don’t work on webOS anymore (if Firefox would exist for webOS, I’d probably not need that)…but using Android still induces pain and I’m *always* confused when trying to switch an app. Also Android often is lagging more than the Veer…I’m not sure how I achieved that.
Which tablet do you use?
HP TouchPad 32
I “bought” the HP TouchPad 4G that PIC had in their kickstarter. I haven’t gotten it yet. I’ll probably switch to that one, when I receive it. But TP still is good for me. If ACL works out, I’ll get a decent browser on it, then it will be perfect. Never thought about switching to another tablet.
How did you get your start into programming?
I started programming as a school kid. I quickly decided that I don’t like Basic and similar stuff and started learning C++ at the age of 15 or so…I then played a bit with that. In school we had some Pascal. After that I studied Computer Science and got a diploma. This of course included some more programming. 😉
Today I’m working with C++ on Linux on my day job. Although this is in research, so there is no QA or software that gets published.
I learned a lot [of] JavaScript just for webOS development and must say that I quite like it. Especially when it comes to writing node.js services. On the other hand I honestly fail all the time when it comes to designing UIs. I’m really not good at that. So you’ll probably…not “see” much of my software in action. I’m more interested in the stuff working in the background. 🙂
Do you develop for other platforms?
I never really worked on software for other platforms. Just webOS and desktop.
What projects are you supporting in the future?
As I wrote above I’m currently trying to support webos-ports as much as I can. Concrete projects I’m helping them with are: Preware 2, System Update app, carddav/caldav synergy connector.
Thanks for the continued development and support, Garfonso! We’re all looking forward to what webOS Ports has in store for us! You can check out his blog for updates on all of his projects.
#webosforever
