Customer Reviews

Instant Palm OS Applications

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I purchased this book primaraly on the merits of the customer reviews here. After having used this book to develop a Palm application using GCC PRC Tools, I'm stumped as to how it got such good reviews. The example code (in the text and on the CD) contains errors (read: the code won't compile.) Also, the examples are incomplete. For instance, the author talks about reading from a TextField but not how to write to one (not a trivial procedure.) Popup triggers are left out altogether. In general, the author doesn't thouroughly cover the topics he's chosen to write about. Nor does he give you any clue that he's not fully discussing the topic at hand. For example, he mentions only a couple of the built in dialog boxes and doesn't bother to tell you that there are other's available in PalmOS - let alone list them. The worst problem is that some of the examples are good enough to compile and execute on a non-debug device ROM, but will crash the debug ROM or produce erratic behavior in the program (ie: his discussion of PrefGetAppPreferences()) Over and over I'm having to debug errors that have been introduced because I used the author's buggy code. Do yourself a favor, buy a different book on writing PalmOS applications!

This book has actual working examples!! Other books I have seem only to show conceptually how the built in functions work, leaving out other important functions/information to get something working as desired. You can actually take what is shown and make it work how you want without trying to figure out what has been left out.

The book is well written except for inconsistencies in the
source code snippets and the texts.

In page 89, MenuHelloPalm.h has #define MainMenu but in
MenuHelloPalm.rcp, it has MENU MenuMenu. I looked at
the actual MenuHelloPalm.h file in the CD-ROM and its
#define MenuMenu.

Another inconsistency is found at page 93 and 94. In page
93, the function is FrmSetEventHandler(frmP, MainFormHandleEvent)
but in page 94, the author was referring to another function
called FrmAssignEventHandler.

I would have rated this book 5 stars for brevity, layout,
flexibility and the intent to write clearly but the errors above
and probably more (haven't finished reading yet) made me jump
from one page to another trying to put two and two together plus
opening my Palm OS API Reference just to find out which function
should really be used.

I know the best way to check is to re-compile the source
code and see if it runs but that would be a excercise on
the reader's part that we don't have to go through.

I hope the publisher proofreads good books like these twice
in the future.

Still, it's one of the best books out there on Palm OS
Programming besides the Palm OS Programming Bible. Pity I
can't rate it as 4.9.

I had less than a week to finish an application that used infrared (IR) to exchange data between palms. I was able to cut and paste code from the book's CD to finish my application in a few hours. The code works, the discussion is easy to follow!

Most of the Palm porgamming books I've seen were written specifically for use with CodeWarrior. Happily, this one is not. True, it gives you the steps needed to create all the examples using both CW and GCC tools but it at least gives you a choice. This, I think is the best book available for beginners. I only wish the author had added a chapter on programming Tables. Oh well, 4 out of 5 stars ain't bad.

I'm pretty impressed with this book. He presents entire programs and then analyzes the important and new lines in detail. It is pretty thorough, covering basic forms, databases, IR, tcp/ip, integration with palm os services like alarms, etc... but it also covers fun stuff like graphics, animation and simple game creation too. The only omissions I noted were sound and bitmaps, but these topics I found in sample code on the web. I bought palmos programming for dummies a year or two ago, sold it on eBay, and promised I would never touch C or palm programming again, but this book is clear enough to inspire the confidence to go at it again.

Folks say you can't program graphics on a handheld. Nonsense! Jamsa must agree -- he extends the Palm OS graphics library to support 3D graphics. Also discusses animations (actually object translation and scaling).

The book covers the basics of graphics programming in Chapter 6. Chapter 7 extends the code to 3D. Easy to follow. Chapter 17 addresses translation and rotation -- simple animations.

I am hoping the next edition covers bitmaps in more detail and examines video. But this is the best coverage of graphics I have found.

Finally, a book that gives working versions of code for both the GCC and the Metrowerks environments. I've been battling converting Metrowerk projects into MAKE solutions. Getting the code for both was great.

I am now using the trick the book presents in the database chapter to copyprotect my Palm shareware (the trick is to orphan a database). It's easy and effective.

This book has actual working examples!! Other books I have seem only to show conceptually how the built in functions work, leaving out other important functions/information to get something working as desired. You can actually take what is shown and make it work how you want without trying to figure out what has been left out.