PalmPilot's popularity is growing and with over a million units sold, the Palm OS dominates the hand-held market. Wired has astutely described Palm's position in a recent article: "On its way to becoming the bestselling hand-held computer of all time, the 3Com PalmPilot has spawned an intense, emotional, and fanatical developer following not seen since the glory days of the Mac." (Wired, 20 Feb. 98). Palm Programming should be eagerly accepted by programmers because the authors worked closely with Palm to ensure that the book is tailored exactly to the needs of the ever-growing group of Palm developers. As nothing but some piecemeal documentation exists currently, this book provides a much needed solution to the Palm developers. In fact, Palm uses this book as their official developer's guide and will be using it in the future as a key part of their training materials for developers. There are currently no books on Palm programming (and we know of none that are planned). The only way to learn is by using the reference material published by Palm (available freely on their Web site), the tutorial they provide, or various Palm programming FAQs compiled by third parties. Palm Programming shows intermediate to experienced C programmers how to build a Palm application from the ground up. Using an easy-to- understand tutorial approach, this book gives readers everything necessary to create a wide range of Palm applications and conduits, from simple scripts through full-blown applications, and in the process provides thorough coverage of Palm programming. It includes a CD-ROM (Macintosh and Windows compatible) with the full source code to the examples in the book, a trial version of Palm's Software Development Kit, and third-party developer tools, including Metrowerks' CodeWarrior Lite programming kit. Outline Part 1: Overview of Palm OS and devices Chapter 1: The Palm Solution Chapter 2: Developing for Palm OS Chapter 3: Designing a solution Part 2: Programming for the handheld Chapter 4: Structure of an Application Chapter 5: Forms and Form Objects Chapter 6: Databases Chapter 7: Menus Chapter 8: Extras Chapter 9: Communications Chapter 10: Debugging Part 3: Programming for the desktop: conduits Chapter 11: Getting started with conduits Chapter 12: Uploading and Downloading Data Chapter 13: Two-way Syncing Appendix: Where to go from here

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Palm Programming: The Developer's Guide Review,  August 24 2000
Submitted by Joe Siebenmann   [Respond | View]

This book has the best descriptions and information of Palm programming topics. Most others just have page after page of the authors source code, which in my opinion is a poor way to take up space in a book. Palm Programming could be a little more updated, but it's the best out there.


Palm Programming: The Developer's Guide Review,  July 01 2000
Submitted by Joe   [Respond | View]

I haven't found very useful the book. In my opinion, the Palm Developer Zone have more useful and free information. Evenmore, the CD in my book came with a big scratch so I couldn't read the CD content. The book's simplicity and lack of depth coverage for things such as web clipping and conduits put this book at the very basic level. If you are an experimented programmer of C or Java then this book is not for you. You will be better off gathering information directly from Palm.


Palm Programming: The Developer's Guide Review,  April 08 2000
Submitted by Syniq   [Respond | View]



Hi there. I was considering this book, as I just got my new Visor and I love it. I am also a big fan of ORA, with a small (& growing) menagerie filling my bookshelves and causing my wife to groan that I bought ANOTHER.

I came here to look at the price and reviews, and saw that one person had posted a thank you to ORA for posting the book online. I found that post, and would also like that thank ORA. I read some of that online book, and it led me to the decision NOT to purchase it. Not because it is a bad book--it looks like an excellent book. Rather, this book was written for real programmers, not people like me (I am to a real programmer what GI Joe is to a Navy SEAL).

Thanks again! I love ORA!
Syniq


Palm Programming: The Developer's Guide Review,  March 19 1999
Submitted by Daniel A. Schultz   [Respond | View]



A real good book. As a new Palm developer the database sections were indispensible. The conduit descriptions are good too. There are only a couple things I can say I wish it had.
1) Complete API reference with examples (maybe this could be a PalmProgramming in a Nutshell book like UNIX in a Nutshell). I found things like sysBatteryInfo missing.
2) Examples hotsync2/cdk2 as well as version 3.
It's definitely a must have.


Palm Programming: The Developer's Guide Review,  February 17 1999
Submitted by Jim Hill   [Respond | View]



Pick your metaphor. In the interest of courtesy, I'll go with "There's egg
on my face." As an ORA buyer from way back, I was pretty hot when nary a
word in the description of _Palm Programming (dotdotdot)_ mentioned the
vast amount of UNIX/Linux info that would be present. Rather than keeping
an eye out for the book, I had to lip off on the Reader Comments portion of
the book's allocated webspace. That's an action I'm sorely regretting, now
that I've gotten the book and found it to be (as usual) an outstanding
accomplishment.

My apologies to everyone at ORA involved in the production of this book,
especially Neil, Julie, and editor Mark Stone.



Palm Programming: The Developer's Guide Review,  January 16 1999
Submitted by Matt Hahnfeld   [Respond | View]



I just wanted to say thanks to O'Reilly for
posting the online version of this book. Reading
the online version at palm.com really helped me
make the decision to buy the book. Although the
online version is rough in spots, I'm sure some
of it has been touched up in the book itself.

I am a Linux-based GNU programmer like many of the
other folks who have posted here, but I still
found the examples and everything in the book to
be amazingly helpful. A combination of the SDK
docs, the GNU Pilot SDK tutorial, and this book
have given me everything I could ever ask for.
The programming examples themselves are great
for any platform.


Palm Programming: The Developer's Guide Review,  January 16 1999
Submitted by Alex Thomas   [Respond | View]



This was the perfect book for me, as I am in the process of learning just enough 'C' to program this device.

There is one significant correction required. On page 34 of the first print run it says that the Satellite Forms runtime engine is free. This is not the case with recent versions from Puma Technology.

I raised the issue of what this change means to shareware and corporate users of Satellite Forms (namely profound), and can only caution potential users of the consequences of using a tool which requires an unlimited future liability.

If there is one suggestion I may take the oppourtunity to make it would be to illustrate how RAD tools like 'AppMaker' or 'PowerPlant' can be used to plan an application.

I can only endorse this book for the intermediate and experienced 'C' programmers it is designed for.


Palm Programming: The Developer's Guide Review,  January 10 1999
Submitted by killbill@one.net.nospamplease   [Respond | View]



Hi. It's me again. Actually, this is a LIFO queue,
so you won't see me first until next, but you get
the idea.

Anyway, so I am not accused of only carping and
whining, I got the hello world app to compile.

Here are the steps.

Install all the RPM's off of the distribution
CD. They are spread all over the place, but are
at least all under the Linux directory.

Install them all. The GCC will not (apparently)
zing your existing GCC installation, it looks like
everything gets put in a seperate /usr/palm
hierarchy.

Next, you will need to patch the bug I mentioned
in my previous (next) post. You will probably
need to do the next step as root.

Remove the file (actually a link):
/usr/palm/bin/m68k-palmos-coff-obj-res

Now, copy over the file:
/usr/palm/m68k-palmos-coff/bin/obj-res in place of
the file you just deleted.

Finally, set your path as follows (bash shell):
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/palm/bin:/usr/palm/m68k-palmos-coff/bin/

Doing this, I seem to be able to make the example.
To install it to your pilot, type:
pilot-xfer -i /dev/tty? hello.prc
(where /dev/tty? s replaced with the com port
special file name where you have attached
your cradle (i.e. /dev/tty0=com1
/dev/tty1=com2..)).

I installed the program on the pilot, and it
works, but has no icon on the screen.

This may not be the "right" fix, but it seems to
work. I am running RedHat Linux 5.1 (Manhattan).

Good luck.


Palm Programming: The Developer's Guide Review,  December 21 1998
Submitted by pschoonveld@bigfoot.com   [Respond | View]



I found this book to be mildly helpful.

I was programming a GPS & Pilot interaction program that required the use of the serial port. This book uses an example of exactly that. I was excited. But, they didn't explain it at all. I was looking at the online version at palm.com/devzone. Unless the text is a hell of a lot better, I wouldn't waste $33.


Palm Programming: The Developer's Guide Review,  December 06 1998
Submitted by Mike Hughes   [Respond | View]



I looked at the table of contents online briefly, and it
appears that this book has no UNIX development information.
How can this be? I thought O'Reilly was a UNIX supporter.

Oh well, maybe in the second edition. I'm keeping my $32.95


Palm Programming: The Developer's Guide Review,  December 02 1998
Submitted by Robin Stephenson   [Respond | View]



What? *No* information on the use of Unix with the Pilot?
Not even as a client system, let alone development? Argh!
I've been using the pilot-link suite of tools for a while
now (they're on ftp://ryeham.ee.ryerson.ca/pub/PalmOS/ by the way)
and have just installed the gcc cross-compiler on a Linux
system. I've got a basic `hello world' style app running, and I was
going to buy this book to learn more.

I guess O'Reilly won't be getting my money if they can't even find
445k on their CD-ROM for pilot-link. A shame, particularly
when I read this on their web site:

Tim O'Reilly, president of O'Reilly and
Associates, reported today sales of its UNIX technical books
have surged. Sales of Unix In A Nutshell, the best-selling
UNIX book in publishing history, have tripled in the past
month, as have those of many of the company's other UNIX
titles. "We believe UNIX is finding a whole new audience,"
said O'Reilly. "It's hard to ignore an operating system that is
capable of supporting the enterprise and has been pounded
on by the world's largest companies and institutions for over
25 years. We're bullish on UNIX."

A shame that that `bullishness' doesn't extend to people
using Unix with the Palm Pilot. To say I'm disappointed would
be an enormous understatement. I'd been looking forward to this
book.

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