I agree with what you say about leaks, rumors and NDAs, David. It all sounds
like intelligent business practices. I have a couple additional comments
below.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Fedor [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
[...]
> At 2:51 PM -0700 8/7/00, Bob Whiteman wrote:
> >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.
>
> Right, which is precisely why you got that software more than 6 months
ago.
> Heck, at PalmSource if people found good enough bugs, they even got fixed
> before it went final.
Aack, more quoting out of context!
I was using 3.5.0 as an example of a bug being introduced with a new OS
version. I wanted to point out that because of this possibility, developers
need access to the ROMs before they are made available on devices.
Palm did a good job with OS 3.5.0! I was able to use the ROMs before devices
with OS 3.5.0 were available. That was exactly the support I needed. Please
don't think I'm criticizing Palm for doing things appropriately in the past.
[...]
> A few cool things like
> turning the system on briefly when you hit up-arrow and it
> shows the time and goes off a few seconds later... neat, and could have
been
> done with a 3rd party hack. (And sort of was done via a hack.) The
platform didn't
> change; the bundled apps and the device exterior did.
[...]
I have one minor point to add here.
Compatability with a hack is not, and cannot be, guaranteed by any software
developer. A hack can change all the rules. Therefore, it is acceptable to
the user and the developer to say, "Sorry, this software doesn't work with
that hack, so disable the hack when using the software." But we can't say
that when the change is in the ROM image.
-Bob Whiteman
--
For information on using the Palm Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, please see
http://www.palmos.com/dev/tech/support/forums/
