> From: Bradly J. Barton [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
[...]
> What do I want from Palm? I'd like to see an announcement
> like today's...
> only a couple weeks before they actually hit the shelves. Included in
> today's excellent announcement was information that it would
> not affect
> current software. As developers, we knew that would be the
> case,
[...]
I entirely disagree with this statement. With each new PalmOS version there
have been inevitable bugs and incompatibilities. It's the nature of
computers.
For instance, there is a bug involving gadgets which are set unusable that
was introduced with Palm OS 3.5. This bug rendered my software entirely
unusable, even though it worked perfectly in all previous OS versions.
What would've happened if my software had already been released to the
public when OS 3.5 became available to users? A customer buys a brand new
device, installs my software and it doesn't work at all. The user contacts
my tech support and all I can say is, "I don't know why it doesn't work."
That's a very effective way to lose a customer permanently.
Developers need to see platforms before they are released. That way if there
is some incompatibility in the new OSes I can find out what that is, fix it,
and release a new version...or at the very least get my support story
straight before I start losing customers.
Palm has just done a great disservice to its developers.
-Bob Whiteman
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