Palm OS programming

With more than 16 million PDAs shipped to date, Palm hasdefined 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.

Table of Contents

Preface

Part I. Overview of the Palm OS

1. The Palm Solution
How Palm Succeeded
Elements in the Magic Formula
Easy to Carry
Inexpensive
Expandable
Effortlessly Connects to a Desktop Computer
Works Great and Is Simple to Use
Designing Applications for Palm Devices

2. Technical Overview and Development Environments
Palm OS Overview
Conduit Overview
Handheld Development Environments
Alternative Development Environments
High-Level Forms Development
Handheld Development Recommendations
Conduit Development

3. Designing a Solution
User Interface Elements in the Palm OS
Designing with a Particular User in Mind
The Well-Designed Form
Other Design Issues
How the Sample Applications Are Useful
User Interface of the Sales Application
Designing the Sales Application
Designing the Conduit
Design Summary

Part II. Programming a Palm Application

4. Tutorial
POSE
CodeWarrior
PRC-Tools
Installing OReilly Sample project
Installing a PRC on the Handheld
Installing PRC on POSE
Modifying the Sample Application

5. Structure of an Application
Terminology
Palm OS Conventions
The Palm OS and an Application
A Simple Application-OReilly Starter
Other Times Your Application Is Called
Examples
What to Remember

6. Memory Manager
Types of Memory
Dynamic Memory Allocation
Stack Space
Handling Large Amounts of Data
Owner IDs
Cards and Local IDs
Using Memory Effectively
MemoryTestAPIs Example
What to Remember

7. Debugging Palm Applications
POSE
Graffiti Debugging Shortcuts
Source-Level Debugging
Gremlins
Error Manager
Palm OS Sources
Low-Level Debugging with PalmDebugger
Device Reset
Using Simulator on Mac OS
Release/Debug Targets

8. Resources and Forms
Resources
Form Characteristics
Form Events
Form-Level APIs
Modeless Forms
Alerts
Modal Dialog Boxes
Forms in the Sales Application

9. Form Objects
Form Object Characteristics
Form Object Events
Form Object APIs
Types of Form Objects
Sales Application Forms and Form Objects

10. Databases
Overview of Databases and Records
Opening, Creating, and Closing Databases
Working with Records
Examining Databases in the Sales Sample
Summary

11. Menus
Menu User Interface
Menu Resources
Application Code for Menus
Adding Menus to the Sample Application
Summary

12. Extras
Find
Exchange

13. Communications
Serial Communications
TCP/IP Communications

Part III. Designing Conduits

14. Getting Started with Conduits
Overview of Conduits
Using the Backup Conduit
Registering and Unregistering
Using Desktop APIs
Conduit Entry Points
The HotSync Log
When the HotSync Button Is Pressed
Using Conduit Inspector to Verify Your Conduit
Syncing from POSE
Creating a Minimal Sales Conduit

15. Moving Data to and from the Handheld with a Conduit
Conduit Requirements
Where to Store Data
Creating, Opening, and Closing Databases
Moving Data to the Handheld
Moving Data to the Desktop
Keeping the HotSync Progress Dialog Box Alive
When the HotSync Button Is Pressed
Portability Issues
The Sales Conduit

16. Two-Way Syncing
The Logic of Syncing
MFC Conduit Framework
Generic Conduit Framework
Generic Conduit Classes
Using the Wizard to Create a Minimal Generic Conduit
Custom File Formats
Handling Categories
Sales Conduit Based on Generic Conduit

Part IV. Appendixes

A. Where to Go from Here

B. Sales Source Code

C. PilRC Manual

Index