Palm Programming. The Developer's Guide [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Written for the more experienced C/C++ developer moving to Palm development, Palm OS Programming, 2nd Edition sets an admirable standard as a programming tutorial that will let anyone get onboard with the best techniques and APIs used to build state-of-the-art Palm applications.

Few programming titles are as well written as this one. The authors consistently engage the reader with a tone that's smart and surprisingly personable given that this is actually a technical book. They first develop what is special about the Palm platform, including the best way to build user interfaces, plus dos and don'ts for new software. Early sections dissect real software (DateBk4 from Pimlico Software) with commentary from one of its inventors. After surveying the wide array of Palm development options (including CodeWarrior and the Palm OS Emulator, POSE), it's on to a simple Palm program.

While many programming texts use samples that grow in complexity, this title is anchored by a single case study--a sales application. As the authors cover the basics of Palm development, from event-handling basics, APIs for memory management, and form-control programming, they give the APIs you'll need to know. Then they show how their case study makes use of these features. (This approach is effective, though it assumes a bit of programming knowledge on the part of the reader.)

Standout sections here look at what makes Palm development special, including memory management techniques, plus a fascinating look at automated testing tools (called Gremlins), which can find bugs by executing thousands of simulated user actions. Later sections delve into what it takes to create HotSync capabilities for your Palm applications. These modules, called Conduits, clearly present a programming challenge and the coverage here will benefit developers of all levels of experience on the Palm platform.

The Palm platform has been a real success story, and Palm OS Programming: The Developer's Guide shows why. It shows you how to think like a real Palm developer as well as give you the specific APIs and programming techniques you need to know in order to write professional quality Palm applications in C/C++. --Richard Dragan -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Taschenbuch .

The Palm Pilot series of Personal Digital Assistants are the most popular electronic organiser so far, with a user base of well over a million and growing, so this is a timely book.

It also includes a CD with a trial version of the Palm Software Development Kit, Metrowerk's CodeWarrior Lite kit and all the example code.

CodeWarrior is the preferred Palm development system and most of the examples use it.

The book starts with an overview of the Palm devices, moves on to creating a Hello World program, uses this as a springboard for a discussion of the internal Palm environment and the resources it makes available to the programmer before going on to a more serious example.

Roughly half the book consists of code segments used to create an example sales application which reveals and explains the basics of Palm development. There's also extensive discussion of communications between Palms and Mac, Windows and Linux systems. This takes up much of the rest of the book.

This isn't a title you'll while away winter evenings reading, but it is a title anyone new to the Palm programming environment will want to have close by. Working real world code will take you up the learning curve fast. --Steve Patient

Palm Programming: The Developer's Guide succeeds in documenting both the elegance and the pitfalls associated with developing software for this handy gadget. The authors are experienced palmtop developers, and their wisdom is evident in the level of detail provided. A comprehensive introduction to the evolution of the device and its systems opens the book, followed by a classic "hello, world" example program.

The complexity continues to increase as the reader is introduced to forms design and handling and Palm Databases interaction (the equivalent of the Windows registry). Rounding out the applications-development tutorials is an excellent discussion of event-driven user interface (UI) programming and the widgets available in the Palm toolbox.

A number of development options and platforms are covered. If you don't want to shell out hundreds of dollars for commercial software, GNU's Not Unix (GNU) tools from the Free Software Foundation are presented as a viable option. The discussion of conduit development is limited to Visual C++, but only because of the limitations of the official Conduit Developers Kit. --Tim Kohn

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.

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.

Neil Rhodes and Julie McKeehan are experienced authors who, through their company, Calliope Enterprises, work closely with Palm Computing to develop new training materials, materials that are based on this book. They are both programmers with many years of experience working with hand-held systems. Neil and Julied authored several books on C++ and hand-held systems, and now bring their skills to the Palm Computing Platform. Neil has been a UNIX programmer (his fingers still know vi commands), a Mac programmer (shipped several commercial products), a teacher (of programmers for Apple Developer University), a Newton programmer (several commercial products, including some for Apple), and an author (of Newton books, a C++ book, and a Macintosh programming book). Neil has been working with Palm Computing on developing their training strategy and training materials for programmers. He works closely with many of the developer support engineers at Palm (many of whom he also worked with previously when they did Newton developer support). Julie has been a systems administrator, a director of software development at a successful Macintosh software company, a teacher (of programmers for Apple Developer University), and author (of Newton books, a C++ book, and an Internet book).