Zhephree

Dear HP,

I love developing for webOS. It’s quick, it’s intuitive, and it’s great for web devs to get into. The big reason this is is because of the Enyo JavaScript framework used to develop webOS apps. It’s a fantastic framework and is easy to learn.

I’ve written a great, unique app for the TouchPad, written in Enyo. I want to continue developing it, and I will launch it in the App Catalog. However, I would love to release the app as a web app and using my existing code would make my life a lot easier.

If I could develop web apps in Enyo and still release them in the App Catalog, I would absolutely do so. I feel a lot of people would like that option. If you’re going to make a web app and if a side effect of using Enyo to build is that it runs as a native app on any future webOS devices, why wouldn’t you?

I ask you, HP, to please release Enyo as an open source JavaScript framework. This will keep developers using a framework compatible with your OS and whenever you find a hardware partner for webOS devices, you’ll already have apps for these devices.

Think about that — in the current state of webOS, developers will not start developing for webOS right now, even though the OS hasn’t been killed. The message around the Internet is that webOS is dead, no matter what the truth may be. No one will begin being a webOS developer, which makes webOS even less attractive to hardware partners and users in the future. Open source the framework and give current developers an incentive to keep developing webOS-compatible apps. Let us release these apps as web apps or Android/iOS apps a la PhoneGap. Then, when webOS lands on some sort of hardware, we’ll be ready. New developers will feel better about jumping into it because the risk is low — if webOS fails, their apps will still run on other platforms. It’s a win-win.

Open source Enyo, please. HP, I know deep down you guys like webOS. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have taken the chance at all. Keep webOS and its legacy alive. Keep the webOS GBU from feeling like years of their lives were wasted. Keep us developers from being hurt, and hurt financially. Open source Enyo.

Sincerely,

Geoff Gauchet,
Developer of foursquare for webOS, growlr, neato!, and incredible!