At 12:00am -0700 00-08-04, Palm Developer Forum digest wrote:
>Subject: Re: Using OS 3.5 calls...
>From: Steve Sabram <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 23:11:57 -0700
>X-Message-Number: 122
>
>This is the problem with backwards compatibility. We take it a
>policy here to support all the way back to 3.0. One programatic
>technique is to check for the OS version or libraries that are
>there. You can pop up a message saying they need these libraries or
>to upgrade their OS. Considering the market, expect a lot of "How
>do I upgrade tech support?" calls. Jeff Hawkins at the launch of
>Visor stated that only 5% of the user base has upgraded their
>Flashable Palm devices. Then there are the units with masked ROMs
>which can be upgraded but only with a memory patch if it is made available.
>
>One concession is to compartmentalize your 3.5 API calls and disable
>the functionality if running on an older device. You could
>even have an error message saying "To use the feature, please
>upgrade you Palm device to OS version X.X. Check www.palm.com for
>upgrade details." The last can save you a lot of support calls.
>Another technique is to put an 3.5 OS call functionality into your
>app for older devices. But then, that is a bit self-defeating.
Sometimes backwards compatible routines are provided in
PalmOSGlue.lib. Examples include all of the Text Mgr routines. If you
need to run on 3.0 devices, then you can call these TxtGlueXXXX
functions and they'll either wind up jumping to the real routines in
ROM, or provide reasonable approximations of correct behavior on
older devices.
-- Ken
Ken Krugler
TransPac Software, Inc.
<http://www.transpac.com>
+1 530-470-9200
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