34 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Palm OS Programming from the Ground Up, May 18, 2000
This review is from: Palm OS Programming from the Ground Up: The Accelerated Track for Professional Programmers (Paperback)
This was the book I was looking for. I didn't need yet another book explaining what an #include is, or how to format an if() statement. If you are an experienced C/C++ programmer interested in programming the Palm OS platform, this could be the book for you as well.
"Palm OS Programming from the Ground Up" goes from implementing a "Hello World" type application through the development of a full-blown Palm OS application. Step-by-step real code examples clearly describe and demonstrate crucial Palm OS functions. The included CodeWarrior Lite has all the tools needed to design, code, compile and run your projects.
And if you do run into any hitches, the author maintains a web site supporting and expanding upon the book, and is very helpful and responsive to emailed questions. Not for the programming novice, but for everyone else, this is the way to get coding in the shortest amount of time.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not Much Help. Prefer the Dummies Book., May 26, 2000
This review is from: Palm OS Programming from the Ground Up: The Accelerated Track for Professional Programmers (Paperback)
I found the Dummies book to contain much more detailed info than this book. This book doesn't walk you through using the CodeWarrior IDE at all (unlike Dummies). I bought both books and always seem to go to the Dummies book most of the time (I have the Dummies book tabbed with sections highlighted). The version of the included CodeWarrior Lite seemed more up to date, but I could never compile with it. I switched back to the version of CW Lite I got with Dummies and have been using that (CW for Palm OS is on order for me!).
I also found that this book contained too much code and not much explanation of what it was doing. The Dummies book shows a short snippet of code and explains what it's doing step by step. Also this book doesn't explain how to use the CW IDE very well (I think I already said that). It basically just says, "Make your project and compile it." Hmmm, not much help there.
I'm an experienced C and Java programmer. Mixed experience for 10 years on Unix using gcc and NT using IBM's Visual Age for Java. I've found after two weeks of Palm Programming with the Dummies book, that I can come to this book just to pick up a small nibble of info here and there if I can't find it in Dummies first.
I did find some of the code examples on the CD useful. The Dummies book lacked info on floating point arithimetic. This book didn't explain it well either, but at least it had some code examples to look at for the calculator program code. You pretty much need the full blown CW for PalmOS compiler to debug your code (about $370 when I ordered it). This book contains no Conduit info. Dummies has some limited Conduit coverage.
Overall, I highly recommend the Dummies book. Could ya tell?
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Favorable Book Review, February 17, 2001
This review is from: Palm OS Programming from the Ground Up: The Accelerated Track for Professional Programmers (Paperback)
I read the Amazon reviews of this book before I purchased it, but I decided to get it anyway after looking at two other books (O'Reilly and ... the green and white one). I figured I could return it if it was as error-ridden and unhelpful as some of the reviewers here would have you believe.
However, I have been pleasantly surprised with it. All modesty aside, I'm pretty good with C/C++, among other languages, so I come from a programming background (this may be the great divide). Consequently, I haven't found the examples to be too far off the mark. The only major discrepancies I've found are something the author, or editor, could not have prevented: a difference in OS versions. - example -> the main include is different for PalmOS 3.5 and the PilotMain() definition is different.
To be fair to the irritated reviewers, the Constructor application (I'm using a full version of Metroworks CodeWarrios 7) required that a few buttons be pushed that the author didn't point out. But again, this may be a difference in versions since Lite (6?) is shipped on the CD and I'm using the full 7.0.
As for the actual content of the book, the author explains the code and includes useful notes and tables throughout the development of sample application. If, and this is a big 'if', you start at the beginning and work your way to the end (i.e. not skipping around too much), you'll find that the tutorial is adequate in 1) explanation and 2) coverage of basics.
I suspect that the following are the most common reasons for being unsuccessful with this book:
o Nil-to-no programming experience (and I'm not talking about Filemaker or QBasic here).
o Attention span of a gnat.
o Lazy (requires complete build instructions from ground up for every code sample in the book, etc.)
To be fair (again), I'd like to reiterate that I'm using the full version of CodeWarrior (v7.0), so the gripes about inconsistency between example and shipped Lite environment may well be warranted. You'll have to determine that for yourself.
Summary: If you have some programming experience, especially with C, and have the time and patience to use the book, you'll find good explanations with supporting code on:
o how to build/install/debug a basic application.
o use many of the UI components.
o use [palmos] databases.
o and exploit a few nifty tricks.
Rating: I haven't finished the book, so I won't give it a 10, but it's a pretty decent book, so I'll say 8 or 9 out of 10. That's an 'A'.
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