Palm Programming: The Developer's Guide

Handheld Development

Many different development tools are available for Palm programming. There is everything from a collection of tools that let you write C code to polished forms based packages that require only modest amounts of scripting. From this gamut of choices, you should be able to pick the right tool for the type of application you want to create. Before we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each choice, however, it’s worth looking at a description of each option.

For the development of the handheld portion of your Palm application, you can write code on Windows 95/98/NT, Unix, or Macintosh platforms. Palm’s official development environment, CodeWarrior, is available for both Windows and Macintosh. Unix and Windows programmers have access to the free set of tools—GNU C compiler, or GCC—and there are two packages for Windows-based forms development. Last, but not least, Windows programmers can also program in 68K assembler or use a proprietary language called CASL.

CodeWarrior for Palm OS

The official development environment for the Palm OS is Metrowerks’s CodeWarrior for Palm OS. This commercial development environment allows you to create ANSI C and C++ programs on either Windows 95/98/NT or Macintosh systems. It currently includes Palm’s Conduit Software Development Kit, and Palm’s own documentation assumes that you are using it. CodeWarrior for Palm OS is available on a subscription basis with one year of free updates. It costs approximately $369. Here ...