Recently, Jason Robitaille and I had the opportunity to exchange some e-mails.  Jason should be very familiar to those who have been trying out some of the homebrew applications available for webOS.  Not only did he make webOS Quick Installer but he’s produced a number of other helpful applications for those working on webOS.  Read on discover more:

Jason, please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your background.

Well, my name is Jason Robitaille, one part university student, one part hobby developer, all Canadian.  My website is www.canuck-software.ca though lately I’ve been posting most of my software in the Canuck Software subforums at PreCentral.

WebOS Quick Install

One question that came up at the Sprint Open Developers Conference was:  How do you pronounce your last name?

My last name is pronounced “row-bih-tie”.  It’s a French name, heh.

How did you get started with programming?

I got started years ago during high school.  LOVED the PalmOS back then and had the Zire 71.  In grade 10 computer science class they taught us very basic VB.NET programming and from there it was only natural to play with HandheldBasic, and from there I was hooked on software development.

How did you become interested in webOS development?

My current device is the Palm TX.  Around last December I was looking for a prospective smartphone.  I was really on the verge of quitting Palm for good.  With all the buzz about “Palm’s last stand,” their make or break announcement happening at CES, I figured I’d wait until after that before making any decisions.  Turned out the Pre was exactly what I was looking for in a smartphone.

If I understand correctly, you still don’t have a Pre yet because it’s not available in your area of Canada.  Why invest so much time in a device you can’t even use yet?

It’s because of my Palm TX.  I still use it daily and it’s like a mini computer.  Unfortunately, with the Pre and webOS, it doesn’t have the same breadth of third party apps as the PalmOS  A lot of apps I make are in anticipation of getting an actual device (with a few being done on request).  I wanna make the transition from the highly functional, but very outdated, PalmOS to the sleek webOS as smooth as possible.

For those not familiar with it, can you tell us what webOS Quick Install is and what’s special about it?

WebOS Quick Install was released several months ago, and it was the first, and to date only, cross-platform ipk GUI installer.  And it’s come quite a long way since then.  Not only does it offer full application installation and uninstallation, but more recently it was expanded to offer full patch integration. In just a few clicks you have access to dozens and dozens of patches for your device. What’s more, WebOS Quick Install also supports installing .patch files directly, all the while following webOS-Internals standards.

Other notable features include the ability to send and receive files to and from your device, theming, a basic Linux command line interface, and most popularly, a built in ipkg feed viewer.  With the ipkg feed viewer, you have access to hundreds of applications from across the web.

webOS Repair Utility

You also have a program called webOS Repair Utility.  Can you tell us what it does and why you wrote it?

webOS Repair Utility basically scans the program files on your device and compares them to the respective factory stock files.  In this way, it’s able to detect modified and missing files on your device, offering the option to restore the factory file. In addition, there is the ability to do a factory restoration of a specified file.  The advantage of both these features is you no longer need to wipe your device with webOSDoctor to restore files.  One thing people need to keep in mind is this is an in-development program, so keep expectations realistic.

I made this program in response the issues I had seen across the PreCentral forums.  People were having to use webOSDoctor when only a handful of files needed to be restored. It was insane to me that people were having to spend all that extra time running webOSDoctor and restoring things to how they were pre-wipe.  It’s still in-development.  [ed: I had a chance to use it so that I could apply a patch that was balking.]

Theme Builder

Then there’s webOS Theme Builder.  Some of our readers may not be familiar with themes and how they work.  Can you first fill us in on how themes work and then tell us how Theme Builder makes it easier to design themes?

As webOS is built on a foundation of HTML/CSS/JavaScript, virtually everything about it can be skinned. Skinning on the desktop is accomplished with WebOS Quick Install and a zip with the replacement images and a theme.xml file in it.  The theme.xml basically tells which files go where on your device.

WebOS Theme Builder basically makes things simplified.  The theme.xml gets built automatically, and with the latest 2.0 release, there’s a theme assistant, providing an easy way to add common image replacements for images like icons and system graphics.  [ed: Themes let you change the look of many parts of webOS.  At last check there were over 600 themes available.  You can use webOS Quick Install or Preware to install them.]

Internalz

Lastly, there are Internalz and FileMgr Service.  Who are these for and what do they do?

One thing sorely missing from webOS was a file browser.  It seems really inconvenient that users had to connect to a computer in USB mode to move or delete a file. With that in mind, I made Internalz and FileMgr Service.  Internalz is the webOS application that you use and FileMgr Service is a background service that powers Internalz.

Currently Internalz is able to browse the full file system, copy and move files and directories, rename directories, and delete files and directories. May not sound like much right now, but I have big plans for Internalz in the future. One particular plan is to add unzip/unrar/untar support. Can’t go into any other details, but rest assured, there’s lots of useful features coming to Internalz.

Are there any others that I missed?

Recently I created an open source utility call Unified Diff Creator. In short, it’s an easy-to-use patch maker. I’m also one of the people working on the open source video recording app. Everything else is in development and not yet released to the public.

Judging by the types of programs and apps you’ve produced it seems like you are more interested in the ‘nuts and bolts’ aspect of webOS.  Would you say that’s true?

Yea, that’s pretty accurate.  However it’s a bit more due to necessity rather than choice.  If I could, I would be doing a lot more webOS on-device applications. In particular, I’d greatly like to develop apps I could sell on the App Catalog (as I’d make more money by even selling $0.99 apps compared to the donations I’ve received), but I feel it’s more necessary to have tools like WebOS Quick Install and Internalz first. Plus, it certainly doesn’t hurt with creating a reputation of building quality software.

What would you like to tackle next?

I have many many things in development.  One big project I want to be continually updating is Internalz.  As well, I have many unreleased projects that I’ve been making progress on, including a dedicated archive extraction app, a comic book reader, a system monitor, and a school note taking app/class management app. But alas I’m only one man and it may be a while before everything sees the light of day. In the more immediate term, however, one project I’ll be working on is an open source cross-platform Java-based port of Rod Whitby’s Meta-Doctor, which I’m calling MetaDoctorX.

Have you had any interactions with the folks from Palm?  If so, what’s their reaction to the work you’ve done?

The only interaction I have with Palm is with Chuq [Von Rospach] (Developer Community Manager), though I’d love to have greater interaction with Palm, and do anything I can to assist them.  I’m a long time Palm user and love the new direction the company is going.  Their interaction with other developers has shown they realize it’s the third party apps that make the platform, and while they may occasionally misstep, it’s mainly as they’re playing the catchup game with the other smartphone platforms (and they’ve generally rectified those situations promptly).  I have the utmost confidence in webOS and wish Palm all the best. If they need to contact me, they have my email, eh.

What do you do when you’re not working on webOS software and dreaming about the day you’ll get the Pre?

Well, university takes up a lot of time.  I’m going for a 4-year major in Computer Science (specialization in networks and security) and a minor in Film Studies. Between university and webOS work, my little amount of spare time goes towards hanging out with friends and the occasional playing of World of Warcraft.

What’s your favorite pizza topping?

I’m a sucker for ham and pineapple, heh.

Thank you very much for taking the time to talk with us.