The Platinum test was written to generally cover what a Platinum appliction
should look like. However, it is impossible to write a simple test that
absolutely covers everything. Rather then writing a really vague test, it was
written (long before I came here) to be a general guideline. So yes, there are a
lot of situations that merit an exception to the test. One of these is the
global find situation, and exceptions have been granted on this one many times.
Having the option to turn global find on is a nice addition, but for
applications with large databases like restaurant guides, e-book readers, etc.
it is a better user experience to have it turned off. Or it might only search
certain fields, like in the case of a restaurant guide... maybe it would only
search the users comments section and not everythign else. I am pretty sure that
you will get your exception for the find issue... :)
Taking a step back and looking at Platinum again, I would encourage anyone who
is looking at getting Platinum to go through the test and pick out what would
stand in the way of their app passing (this includes testing on debug ROMs).
Then try and justify why your app does what it does (unless it is crashing :).
Really picture the alternative, because there are alot a lot of cases where the
user experience is acceptable but it would be a whole lot better if it was more
similar to that of the standard PIM applications. However, if you really have
your reasons, pre-submit your exception requests to QP. They will send it in to
Palm and we will make a judgement... A lot of exceptions get granted, such that,
there is a good chance you will have no problems. However, if it is a case where
there is a good reason not to give an exception (it may have to do with future
compatibility, a dramatically different UI, etc.), you will know before you put
$1000 down to get your app tested...
-Ezekiel Sanborn de Asis
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