James Tu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> How do I go about:
> (1) Converting this text file into a something for the palm? Do I need
> to write a conversion program to convert it into a palm database (pdb)?
> What other formats for storing this information should I think about?
You need to write a conversion program. You also need to decide on a
format for your data.
I have seen a lot of new Palm people who seem to have some confusion as
to what exactly a .pdb is. Think of .pdb as a container for moving
database data around, not as a standalone file format with meaning in
and of itself.
Yes, you need to convert your data to .pdb, but that's only half of
it. You also need to decide how you're going to represent the data
inside the .pdb. Without that context, it's no more meaningful than if
somebody asked you to convert their text file to a SQL database. The
first thing you would ask them is "what will the records and fields
contain?"
There are lots of options for moving data into a .pdb file. I like
Perl's Palm::PDB; it's quite simple to use and does the trick for me.
> (2) Once I have this database? How do I go about developing with this
> populated database? Within Codewarrior, is there a way to add a
> database that contains data as part of a project?
There are lots of ways to do this. You could distribute your program as
a .prc and a .pdb, and both would need to be installed to use the
program. You could put the data into a resource, and then the program
could extract the resource, move it into a database, then delete the
resource.
You probably need to study more about the PalmOS architecture, as well
as think more about your program's architecture before you can decide
the best mechanism.
> (3) How do those applications that allow you to load let's say 1/3 of a
> book at a time work? I.e. I've seen apps that allow you to load a
> chapter of a book at a time. Do you write the main app which just
> loads different databases at runtime?
There are a couple of ways to do this as well. You could put a book as a
single database with multiple records or you could put a book as a lot
of databases with a single record each. See my comment above about
studying the PalmOS architecture.
--
Dave Carrigan ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) | Yow! Well, I'm INVISIBLE AGAIN..
UNIX-Apache-Perl-Linux-Firewalls-LDAP-C-DNS | I might as well pay a visit to
Seattle, WA, USA | the LADIES ROOM...
http://www.rudedog.org/ |
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