Palm OS Programming

"Palm OS Programming: The Developer's Guide, Second Edition shows intermediate to experienced 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. If you know C or C++ and want to join the demand for wireless applications, then this is the book for you. With useful information for everyone from beginning to experienced Palm programmers, it covers everything you need to write a Palm OS application: from user interface design, to coding a handheld application, to writing an associated desktop conduit. The 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.

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. 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).

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).

Preface	p. xi
Overview of the Palm OS
The Palm Solution	p. 3
How Palm Succeeded	p. 3
Elements in the Magic Formula	p. 5
Easy to Carry	p. 5
Inexpensive	p. 7
Expandable	p. 8
Effortlessly Connects to a Desktop Computer	p. 10
Works Great and Is Simple to Use	p. 12
Designing Applications for Palm Devices	p. 14
Technical Overview and Development Environments	p. 21
Palm OS Overview	p. 21
Conduit Overview	p. 25
Handheld Development Environments	p. 26
Alternative Development Environments	p. 32
High-Level Forms Development	p. 35
Handheld Development Recommendations	p. 37
Conduit Development	p. 39
Designing a Solution	p. 41
User Interface Elements in the Palm OS	p. 42
Designing with a Particular User in Mind	p. 53
The Well-Designed Form	p. 70
Other Design Issues	p. 77
How the Sample Applications Are Useful	p. 80
User Interface of the Sales Application	p. 80
Designing the Sales Application	p. 90
Designing the Conduit	p. 96
Design Summary	p. 98
Programming a Palm Application
Tutorial	p. 103
POSE	p. 104
Code Warrior	p. 109
PRC-Tools	p. 119
Installing OReilly Sample project	p. 127
Installing a PRC on the Handheld	p. 128
Installing PRC on POSE	p. 130
Modifying the Sample Application	p. 131
Structure of an Application	p. 138
Terminology	p. 138
Palm OS Conventions	p. 140
The Palm OS and an Application	p. 142
A Simple Application--OReilly Starter	p. 150
Other Times Your Application Is Called	p. 161
Examples	p. 164
What to Remember	p. 170
Memory Manager	p. 171
Types of Memory	p. 171
Dynamic Memory Allocation	p. 175
Stack Space	p. 181
Handling Large Amounts of Data	p. 184
Owner IDs	p. 186
Cards and Local IDs	p. 188
Using Memory Effectively	p. 190
Memory TestAPIs Example	p. 191
What to Remember	p. 195
Debugging Palm Applications	p. 196
POSE	p. 197
Graffiti Debugging Shortcuts	p. 206
Source-Level Debugging	p. 208
Gremlins	p. 213
Error Manager	p. 219
Palm OS Sources	p. 220
Low-Level Debugging with PalmDebugger	p. 221
Device Reset	p. 222
Using Simulator on Mac OS	p. 223
Release/Debug Targets	p. 223
Resources and Forms	p. 227
Resources	p. 227
Form Characteristics	p. 232
Form Events	p. 233
Form-Level APIs	p. 235
Modeless Forms	p. 236
Alerts	p. 237
Modal Dialog Boxes	p. 239
Forms in the Sales Application	p. 242
Form Objects	p. 248
Form Object Characteristics	p. 248
Form Object Events	p. 249
Form Object APIs	p. 251
Types of Form Objects	p. 254
Sales Application Forms and Form Objects	p. 294
Databases	p. 320
Overview of Databases and Records	p. 320
Opening, Creating, and Closing Databases	p. 324
Working with Records	p. 332
Examining Databases in the Sales Sample	p. 350
Summary	p. 368
Menus	p. 369
Menu User Interface	p. 369
Menu Resources	p. 373
Application Code for Menus	p. 374
Adding Menus to the Sample Application	p. 384
Summary	p. 392
Extras	p. 393
Find	p. 393
Exchange	p. 402
Communications	p. 416
Serial Communications	p. 416
TCP/IP Communications	p. 440
Designing Conduits
Getting Started with Conduits	p. 459
Overview of Conduits	p. 459
Using the Backup Conduit	p. 462
Registering and Unregistering	p. 465
Using Desktop APIs	p. 468
Conduit Entry Points	p. 482
The HotSync Log	p. 485
When the HotSync Button Is Pressed	p. 487
Using Conduit Inspector to Verify Your Conduit	p. 488
Syncing from POSE	p. 490
Creating a Minimal Sales Conduit	p. 492
Moving Data to and from the Handheld with a Conduit	p. 500
Conduit Requirements	p. 500
Where to Store Data	p. 500
Creating, Opening, and Closing Databases	p. 501
Moving Data to the Handheld	p. 502
Moving Data to the Desktop	p. 505
Keeping the HotSync Progress Dialog Box Alive	p. 508
When the HotSync Button Is Pressed	p. 509
Portability Issues	p. 509
The Sales Conduit	p. 511
Two-Way Syncing	p. 529
The Logic of Syncing	p. 529
MFC Conduit Framework	p. 534
Generic Conduit Framework	p. 534
Generic Conduit Classes	p. 535
Using the Wizard to Create a Minimal Generic Conduit	p. 542
Custom File Formats	p. 545
Handling Categories	p. 548
Sales Conduit Based on Generic Conduit	p. 551
Appendixes
Where to Go from Here	p. 565
Sales Source Code	p. 569
PilRC Manual	p. 638
Index	p. 663
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

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