Palm OS Programming: The Developer's Guide, 2nd Edition [Paperback]

Julie McKeehan (Author), Neil Rhodes (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1565928563 | ISBN-13: 978-1565928565 | Publication Date: October 15, 2001 | Edition: Second Edition

With more than 16 million PDAs shipped to date, Palm has defined the market for handhelds, having dominated this class of computing devices ever since it began to outpace competitors six years ago. The company's strength is the Palm OS, and developers loyal to this powerful and versatile operating system have created more than 10,000 applications for it. Devices from Handspring, Sony, Symbol, HandEra, Kyocera, and Samsung now use Palm OS, and the number of registered Palm Developers has jumped to 130,000.

If you know C or C++, and want to join those who are satisfying the demand for wireless applications, then Palm OS Programming: The Developer's Guide, Second Edition is the book for you. With expanded coverage of the Palm OS--up to and including the latest version, 4.0--this new edition shows intermediate to experienced C programmers how to build a Palm application from the ground up. There is even useful information for beginners.

Everything you need to write a Palm OS application is here, from user interface design, to coding a handheld application, to writing an associated desktop conduit. All the major development environments are discussed, including commercial products such as Metroworks CodeWarrior, Java-based environments such as Sun KVM and IBM VisualAge Micro Edition, and the Free Software Foundation's PRC-Tools or GCC. The focus, however, is C programming with CodeWarrior and PRC-Tools. New additions to the second edition include:

• A tutorial that takes a C programmer through the installation of necessary tools and the creation of a small handheld application.
• A new chapter on memory, with a comprehensive discussion of the Memory Manager APIs.
• Greatly expanded discussions of forms, forms objects, and new APIs for the Palm OS.
• Updated chapters on conduits that reflect the newer Conduit Development Kit.

The best-selling first edition of this book is still considered the definitive guide for serious Palm programmers; it's used as the basis of Palm's own developer training materials. Our expanded second edition promises to set the standard for the next generation of Palm developers.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Written for the more experienced C/C++ developer moving to Palm development, Palm OS Programming, Second 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 a technical book. They first examine 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 provide 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 inspect what makes Palm development special, including memory management techniques, plus there's 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 reveals why. It shows you how to think like a real Palm developer and gives you the specific APIs and programming techniques you need to know in order to write professional-quality Palm applications in C/C++. --Richard Dragan

From the Publisher

Palm OS Programming: The Developer's Guide, Second Edition shows intermediate to experienced C and C++ programmers how to build a Palm application from the ground up. The book follows up the success of our best-selling first edition with expanded coverage of the Palm OS, up to and including the latest version, 4.0. This book will set the standard for the next generation of Palm developers.

Everything you need to write a Palm OS application is here, from user interface design, to coding a handheld application, to writing an associated desktop conduit. All the major development environments are discussed, including commercial products such as Metroworks CodeWarrior, Java-based environments such as Sun KVM and IBM VisualAge Micro Edition, and the Free Software Foundation's PRC-Tools or GCC. The focus, however, is C programming with CodeWarrior and PRC-Tools. New additions to the second edition include:

• A tutorial that takes a C programmer through the installation of necessary tools and the creation of a small handheld application
• A new chapter on memory, with a comprehensive discussion of the Memory Manager APIs
• Greatly expanded discussions of forms, forms objects, and new APIs for the Palm OS
• Updated chapters on conduits that reflect the newer Conduit Development Kit

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 702 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; Second Edition edition (October 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565928563
• ISBN-13: 978-1565928565
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,932,784 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent introduction, but a few problems, October 13, 1999

By 

Michael Portuesi (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Palm Programming: The Developer's Guide (Developer's Guides (Osborne)) (Paperback)

I have read the author's previous books on Newton programming, so I knew what to expect from this book. I wasn't expecting a combined tutorial/reference that could stand apart from the Palm docs, nor was I expecting it to cover "cool" stuff like writing Hacks for Hackmaster.

I mostly got what I expected, which was a good introduction to programming for the Palm platform, with fairly detailed technical introduction and programming hints for the user interface, database management, beaming, find, and a few other basic topics.

In a few places, though, the text gets a little hard to follow, and could benefit from a re-edit. Also, the code examples for the book's sample application are frequently presented out of context. You can usually understand how a particular API call is used, but it becomes difficult to see how this code fragment fits into the bigger picture.

Finally, for Linux programmers, the accompanying CD contains packages of development software (GCC, PilRC, and associated utilities). However, one of the packages (the prc-tools RPM) was put together badly, and hence if you install the software you get a non-working development environment. Once you do get a working development environment, the sample code needs some tweaking before it will compile - the Makefiles have DOS carriage-returns in it which confuse gmake, and the code examples themselves have mixed case in the #include directives which do not match the actual files on disk. It's obvious the code was developed on Windows, and the Linux side was never tested. I have tweaked, built, and run the sample application from Linux, so it can be made to work - you just have to be a little resourceful. I have to say, though, that I expected better quality control from O'Reilly.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Beginner's book in programming., December 11, 1999

By 

D. Robert Velez (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Palm Programming: The Developer's Guide (Developer's Guides (Osborne)) (Paperback)

After buying a Palm organizer, I knew I had to develop an app for it. This book is not written in such a way to help even a beginner get off the ground. Although it talks about different environments and other software to use, there is no clear thought and organization. The author does stress on good programming design and development, but thats about it. I'm sort of diappointed in this title, especially since its an O'Reilly book. Skip this one and find another Palm programming book!

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Don't bother -- the DOCS available at Palm, Inc. are better, November 15, 2000

By 

J. D. Shaffer (Shimane, Japan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Palm Programming: The Developer's Guide (Developer's Guides (Osborne)) (Paperback)

I read the SDK documentation and the SDK Companion before Iever bought this book. I thought it would help clarify some of themore difficult points (as I come from a weak programming background.)But instead, I found that I already know MORE than this book teaches.Many of the examples are pseudo-code, worthless as real examples, andbarely helpful for the calls they make. The authors often gloss overthe more important points like common use, syntax, and definitions;telling the reader to read the SDK documents for THOSE things. Well,if I can read the SDK for everything important, than why do I need thebook? To summarize, it's not worth the money...