>> At this time, neither CodeWarrior nor GCC come with a C++ framework that
>> would "objectize" programs written for the Palm OS. A few attempts are
available
>> on the Web but nothing very significant until now (unless I missed one). I
>> think that it should be rather easy to develop such a framework. But
obviously,
>> "official" tools and documentations merely ignore C++.
>> I'm wondering if this is because the overhead of using C++ would be too
>> big or just because the current development tools are unable to support and
>> integrate with a framework like Visual C++ does with MFC.
Certainly a C++ framework a la MFC is "possible" on the Palm. Our approach
however, and the advice we give to folks coming to the Palm from Windows,
is to all but forget about C++, except as a "typesafe" way of compiling and
linking Palm programs.
The main reasons:
-Heap and stack space are severely limited, so counting on being able to
instantiate complex objects in either space is dicey. Having to go back and
rip out a design that was based on a class hierarchy that will not fit in
the Palm memory space is no fun at all.
-The vtable/globals problem for shared libraries.
-Code size and execution speed are very high priorities on this platform.
At present, we avoid using C++ except in the most rudimentary ways. Someday
this may change, but not real soon would be my guess. Before Metrowerks
went off and added framework support, I'd much rather see:
1. command line compilation and linking
2. makefile support
3. stable debugging
4. faster debugger
Glenn Bachmann
Bachmann Software and Services, LLC
http://www.bachmannsoftware.com
Software for Handheld & Wireless Computing, Windows and the Internet
Authors of "Palm Programming", published by Macmillan/Sams, and home of
Bachmann Print Manager, the only graphical printing solution for the Palm
Computing Platform
