> Being a qualified newbie in Palm development, and a very experienced
> software engineer with over 10 years experience in software development
Well having more than 10 years programming experience in programming
with C and C++, and 20 years in circuit design, I would also like to
comment on this.
> across many platforms, excluding mainframe, I consider myself qualified to
> weigh in with my two cents worth. Before VB, serious software development
> for business was limited to engineers. There was a lot of hacks out there
The implication is that VB is a serious software development tool for
business. Not true, in my opinion. VB was used mostly by people who
found C and/or C++ too complicated and was rarely use to develope
high quality business software.
> slamming C into devices. But computer science is only half science - the
> study of alorythms, a sturdy foundation of compiler construction, and a
> plenty of Object Oriented programming was enough to get a decent job. But
> the other half is art. By art I mean the ability to look at a GUI and
> determine what is wrong with it. To be able to match mental models to
> software applications. The ability to create metaphores that please the
> user and excite them about work!
> VB changed who could program and allowed more "normal" people whom are
> not scientists to enhance the grey science part of software engineering.
> Real innovative leaps were made by laymen solving problems that THEY had
> experienced. VB created a layer of abstraction with its' visual interface
> (drag and drop) and notion of properties which has been extended into COM
> / DCOM and other Microsoft crap like windows DNA.
VB did change who could program but that did NOT create a bunch of
high quality programmers, did NOT add anything to the art of
programming and those who were already highly trained programmers
wouldn't be caught dead using VB.
> Palm development is still a toddler. It doesn't take much to see the
> potential of this platform, but it does take a lot of time to REACH it....
> The tools are not mainstream and there is not REALLY GOOD documentation
> for anything. Charles Peitzold wrote a very famous windows programming
> book that became everyones Windows programming bible because it was easy
> to understand and he made everything straight forward. Many other great
> authors stand on his shoulders for his success. But there is no bible
> like Charles wrote for palm. The best seems to be Palm Programming by
> Rhodes and McKeehan, but it is not good enough. Someone needs to kick it
> up a notch.
The last thing we need is to see the Palm OS go the way of Microsoft.
That path leads to bloated, inefficient code that requires 64Gbytes
to be useful. There is NO art in that.
> So there! Good tools and GREAT documentation make a platform
> successful. There are already plenty of good ideas for this platform, but
> programming here still sucks!
Good tools are a great asset. But that is not what makes a platform
successful. It's the applications, which do not need Microsoft type
tools. The Palm is already quite successful with the aid of
Microsoft type tools.
Ever wonder why a Palm can run quite efficiently on a 2M device while
a Windows CE with all the high-priced quality tools (???) requires 32
Meg for a basic machine?
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