It's a shame that the book got so many bad reviews. I learned how to program
the Palm from the O'Reilly book and I continue to recommend it because in my
opinion it was, and still is, the best source of information on the subject.
True, I found myself sometimes having to go some distance to decipher some
of the code, but when you consider when it was written (almost two years
ago) it is quite an achievement. If I had to choose between the SAMS book
and the O'Reilly book, I would chose the O'Reilly book. Fortunately I own
both so I don't have to chose, but I think for my purposes the O'Reilly book
is better because it gives a more thorough discussion of Tables than SAMS,
which is probably one of the hardest subjects to explain. It also covers
Conduits very thoroughly where the SAMS book does not give any help on how
to write one. The O'Reilly book does tend to have a stronger "techie" slant
than the SAMS book does, but that's what I look for. In the end I always
find myself referring to the O'Reilly book first and then if it doesn't
explain a particular topic to my satisfaction I'll check the SAMS book or
the Palm docs.
The other major difference between the two is that the O'Reilly book, even
though its major focus was on writing programs using GCC, it makes an
attempt to cover certain topics by discussing them from both the Code
Warrior approach as well as the GCC approach. Since I only had GCC to use at
the time I was grateful for that fact, but it can lead to confusion with new
programmers to have both approaches referred to in the same book.
Learning to program for the Palm two years ago was the biggest challenge of
my programming career. Writing a book on the subject has to be an even
greater challenge because you not only need to convey a radically different
processing model (the "event loop") you also need to explain a Palm API that
contains functions similar to C functions, but have their names capitalized
and act slightly differently from their C namesakes. And don't forget all
the data types that are unique to the Palm OS.
All in all programming for the Palm remains difficult and there needs to be
better tools and better books. So for now if you want the best "book" on
Palm programming, get out your duct tape and tape together O'Reilly, SAMS, K
& R (or your favorite C book), and the Palm documentation. You'll need them
all.
Mitch Fawcett
Tapn'see Software
Home of SuperList2(tm)
http://www.tapnsee.com
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Randy
Stone
Sent: Friday, July 21, 2000 10:44 AM
To: Palm Developer Forum
Subject: RE: Wireless E-mail app on Palm V
The O-Reilly book is really slammed in Amazon reviews:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/book-customer-reviews/1565925254/qid=96
4189751/sr=1-2/102-7065237-1588164
Any other suggested references that address my requirements?
Thanks
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hari Warrier [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Thursday, July 20, 2000 6:18 PM
> To: Palm Developer Forum
> Subject: Re: Wireless E-mail app on Palm V
>
> The oreilly book has what you want - btw, when you say "sync" - it has
> many
> meanings - If you just download corporate mail via pop3/imap, that is just
> one part of it. ..then if you want the desktop copy of email to be in
> "sync"
> with Palm, that's a different story - you need a conduit.
>
> "Randy Stone" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:18224@palm-dev-forum...
> >
> > I am in the early stages of designing a Palm V e-mail app that can sync
> with
> > corporate e-mail. Does anyone know of an API for communicating over a
> > modem? Can I use the Serial Manager for this or is there a higher level
> API
> > available that encapsulates the low level calls required in Serial
> Manager?
> >
> > Randy Stone
> > Programmer/Analyst
> > > VAST Solutions
> > >
> >
> >
>
>
>
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