Programming Visual Basic for the Palm OS

Using AppForge

Now that the software is installed, let’s look at how to build a Palm PRC program from within VB. Start by launching the VB IDE. Notice that there is now an AppForge project type available from the New Project dialog, as shown in Figure 1-5.

Figure 1-5. New AppForge Project

You might have to scroll the dialog a little to see the AppForge project icon, especially if you have a lot of other project types and wizards installed. Once you select AppForge, you will get another dialog asking you to select a runtime target—Palm OS or Pocket PC. Since this is a book about Palm software development, choose Palm OS.

Alternatively, you can use the Start AppForge menu option that is accessible from the AppForge program group. This starts the VB IDE and brings up a history of recent Palm OS projects, as shown in Figure 1-6. Choose the New Project button, and once again select Palm OS as the runtime target.

Figure 1-6. AppForge project manager

The first thing you will see after creating a new AppForge project is a very small form. Get used to it—that’s all there is on the Palm PDA. We’ll look into the user interface issues imposed by the Palm’s stark 160 x 160 pixel screen in Chapter 2.

We’re going to build the simplest possible application, so add the following code to the usual Form1 ...