At 3:58 PM -0700 8/7/00, Steve wrote:
>One more question - is the data format specification of the new NotePad
>published (as the others are via the published source code for MemoPad,
>ToDo list, etc.)?
No. The device team decided this was just a device-specific application,
not part of the platform, and thus not a supported, documented, published
thing. That might change later on, but that's the situation right now.
At 4:10 PM -0700 8/7/00, Bob Whiteman wrote:
>If Palm is concerned about leaks of new features, they can limit the
>information provided to just the ROM image, and they can require an NDA from
>developers before releasing even that much to a developer.
That works for small sets of developers, but not the entire community. If
we took out all the interesting unnannounced software, what would you have?
Well, the existing 3.5 roms plus the 3.5.1 patch installed. And we already
had that. The new software was a feature of the device and wasn't
something that needed to be seeded to everyone beforehand, like we did with
the web clipping stuff, and the color stuff, both of which were indeed
extremely important to be seen and experimented with.
At 10:16 PM -0700 8/7/00, Bradly J. Barton wrote:
>Let's just leave it at the statement that many of the developers would have
>liked to have had more information sooner.. for a variety of reasons,
>including software, hardware, and project planning issues.
Yes, and as I mentioned yesterday, the product teams made a deliberate
decision not to disclose earlier, for several reasons. If you want the
situation to change, as I also said yesterday, give me well-reasoned data
that will impact them next time this sort of situation arises, and/or let's
suggest alternatives that would meet the needs of both parties.
At 6:08 AM -0700 8/8/00, Dave Lippincott wrote:
>I just can't wait for the USB Palm. When it starts shipping, I might as
>well throw out all my inventory because I'll pretty much be out of business.
Are you being sarcastic? I can't tell. You should indeed expect us to
change and improve our products, and some may have USB particularly as more
and more desktop machines ship without serial ports. Don't base your
business on a little detail like that! (Or stock up on USB <-> Serial
adapter boxes.)
At 7:01 AM -0700 8/8/00, K. Chugh wrote:
>Palm would do itself a huge favor by trusting it's developers, retailers,
>etc. enough to let them in on the company plans. Apple does this all the
>time
>...Rumors should be left to the consumer community, developers
>should be treated as insiders
Apple certainly doesn't tell everyone everything, and even under the
incredibly tight controls, leaks happen and then Apple sues the developer.
Yuck - I certainly don't want to get into that situation! (And neither do
you.)
There are too many developers to be considered insiders. And there's no
way to differentiate between the trustworthy developers and the folks who'd
just forward everything to the press. Just takes one or two bad apples...
At 10:30 AM -0700 8/8/00, Oliver King-Smith wrote:
>Palm is definitely sharing information with favored developers. They also
>share the information with the press (this was bragged about on PalmPower)
>yesterday. So you are being very naive in believing that everyone gets the
>information at the same time.
Absolutely we share some things with a very small set of developers who are
strategic and important (to that product) and whom we trust. If we told
50,000 people and you weren't included, you'd have cause to feel left out.
But that's not the situation, and even some of my favorite developers have
absolutely no idea what's coming up, because they don't need to know yet.
Are they curious? Sure. But if they don't need to know, why tempt their
honesty by giving them opportunities to spill the beans, with marginal or
no benefit on their side or ours?
If people are important and strategic enough, they'll be working with us
and us with them. That's a different situation than telling everyone
indiscriminately.
Whew, what a lot of responses. Hopefully this clarifies, and that the
situation now makes sense. If not, let's talk constructively about how it
can work well for everyone in the future.
-David Fedor
Palm Developer Support
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