The Palm webOS team has put together a tool they call “Ares“, a web-based IDE.  It looks to be built on the Mozilla Bespin project, which itself is pretty slick, although still a bit too early for me personally to migrate to on a daily basis.  If there was a way to incorporate basic code completion and project search, this would probably be enough for many people to switch over as their main JavaScript IDE.

I had a quick play with the Ares IDE and it’s pretty darn slick for a first release.  There’s a drag and drop UI builder, which quickly allowed me to piece together a UI with buttons and such, and attach code to various widget events with a minimum of fuss.  Previewing the app directly in the browser is quick and painless.

If you’re interested in learning more about webOS development for the Palm Pre, check out Frank Zammetti’s new webOS book and don’t miss his 3 part webOS series in JSMag, starting with December 2009’s first installment.