Plug-In Development Kit (PDK)

The Palm webOS PDK is a cool part of the webOS SDK that lets developers use C and C++ along with the web technologies that help power webOS apps. The best part? You can mix these languages in one single application! With the PDK, you can create amazing features for webOS, like super immersive 3D graphics. Plus, if you've made games on other platforms before, it’s really easy to bring those titles over to webOS.

What Does PDK Mean?

The name PDK comes from how C and C++ components fit into webOS applications. The whole webOS platform is based on standard web technologies and uses the WebKit browser engine for its app environment. So, when you build components with the PDK, they plug right into your webOS apps using the same methods that desktop browser plug-ins use.

Why Use the PDK?

Palm designed this awesome toolkit with a couple of key goals in mind:

• Make it easy to port C/C++ applications to webOS, even those using OpenGL ES 1.1 or 2.0.


• Allow smooth integration of C/C++ components to boost what your webOS apps can do.

Developing Your Apps

The Palm webOS PDK also lets you develop and test your apps right on your computer as well as on an actual device.

Technologies Behind the PDK

This Palm PDK is built on some solid technologies:

• GCC: It compiles C/C++ code into ARM native code since Palm devices run ARM processors with embedded Linux OS.


• OpenGL ES 1.1 or 2.0: A standard API for creating both 2D and 3D graphics across different platforms.


• Simplified DirectMedia Library (SDL): This free multimedia library gives you low-level access to audio and video through OpenGL ES among other things.

You also get some extra libraries included:

• SDL_image: Supports multiple image formats.


• SDL_mixer: Handles complex audio functions like sound mixing.


• SDL_ttf: Supports TrueType font rendering.


• SDL_net: Provides networking support.


• Palm Development Library (PDL): This adds functions specifically for Palm devices.


• SDL_cinema: This includes necessary functions for playing video on your device.

Your Development Environment Options

You can build and test your applications using all the code libraries that come with the PDK. For testing purposes, there are desktop versions available too! This means you can develop and debug everything right in tools like Visual Studio or Xcode before moving onto actual devices. When you're working in your IDE, you can do things like emulating input events using a keyboard or joystick, access networks, and even play audio!