The last part of this three part review will cover the task of web development on this little device. Make sure you’ve read the first and second part of the review beforehand.
One of the more popular posts on this blog is one talking about how to setup a portable web development platform on a USB drive. Although very portable, this method requires being around a computer with a USB port. Some may argue that carrying a laptop is also sufficient but it is not always possible to carry a laptop with you everywhere.
The Nokia N800 fits handily in a coat pocket and is a truly portable solution, but can you develop on it? I had purchased the device partly to explore this aspect and here are my findings.
Software
One of the biggest selling points of the N800 is the amount of software available for it. Unfortunately, not all applications have been ported to the latest version of the OS yet so some of the software mentioned may be for OS2007 and not work on OS2008.
The Web Server
The N800 can be setup to be a LAMP server (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) which is typical for what most people need. Installation of Apache, MySQL and PHP are simple since they exist in the application repositories.
Editor
I don’t think a WYSIWYG editor currently exists on the N800 but I didn’t really feel a need for one since I much prefer hand coding with Vim. I installed Vim 7 on the N800 and it is perfect for my code editing. For such a small screen, Vim is perfect because it makes it easy to navigate and edit.
One problem is that you can’t use the full thumb keyboard because it messes up the input in Vim. Instead, you will have to use the stylus keyboard which makes typing a bit slower. Also, the key layout isn’t exactly designed for programming so a lot of special keys will require a few extra clicks to get to but the ability to create shortcut keys in xterm is a plus (i.e. the Esc key).
Testing in Browser
The built-in browser runs the Gecko engine (same as the one to be used in Firefox 3) so it is a very good representative of what a Mozilla browser will see a site as. However, there is currently no way to emulate an Internet Explorer browser.
Web Frameworks
There is a Ruby package available for the N800 but I haven’t seen much in terms of Rails. You could always install it manually though.
Python is perhaps the main driving force of software behind the N800 and appropriately, one could use Django (a Python-based web framework) for their web development needs.
Conclusion
So web development on the N800 is entirely possible but it is not very convenient to code entire sites in it. I often use it to SSH into my server and to make minor update or changes. Occasionally, I try to do a mock-up of a site layout but its troublesome when typing too much text.
Click here to read part 1 of the review covering basic functionality of the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet.
Click here to read part 2 of the review covering third party applications on the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet!
