On Thu, 9 Aug 2001, John Kerwin wrote:
> Don't get discouraged Michael. Basically what you have to do is experiment.
> You get what you pay for when you use free tools, you just have to get your
> hands dirt once in a while. Palm programming seems to be going in a
i would diagree with you there.. free != crap.
prc-tools is your typical gcc. it is more powerful and controlable
than eny visual IDE interface i have seen. there are things i can
do in prc-tools, that i cannot do in code warrior - A LOT OF THINGS.
i have both dev kits installed, so, i am not bias.
in general.. prc-tools = my personal stuff, codewarrior = work/clients.
it has become a managers bottle neck that think codewarrior is
more superior than prc-tools. its horrid.
they each serve their purpose, depending on the developer and
the task you wish to perform.
> different way that most other areas. Most of the apps are written in C and
> people coming from a OO background find it weird. In OO you are more
> worried about the "interface" and you do not care too much about the
> underlying "implementation". In palm it seems to be the opposite. A lot of
> the answers to your questions are found by looking through other people's
> code since the documentation is poor. That is why when people "upgrade" to
> different OS/SDK's they have problems.
i think the palmos docs are one of the highest quality available.
the problem is not the docs.. people just want to say "wheres the
code" and copy it into their projects.. people fail to sit back
and understand how the SDK works, or, what they are doing.
> Also, people on the list have been here so long that they forget:
>
> what it is like to just start out in the palm area
i remember.. - thats why i provide a lot of stuff to help newbies.
http://www.ardiri.com/palm/devkit/
http://www.ardiri.com/palm/cube3D/
http://www.ardiri.com/palm/burning/
http://www.ardiri.com/palm/toggle/
when i started, all i got was a hello world program.. *weeee* :)
when people flame me saying i dont help.. it makes me want to
pull all the work i have done for helping people from the web.
> that things that are obvious to them are not so obvious to others
i spent two/three days one time reading the SDK docs.. the
programmers companion is a good read.. it explains a lot of
things.. i sacraficed three days, and, saved months of wasting
my time saying "hmm.. how does this work?".
> that although they have seen the same question over and over, it is probably
> the first time that you asked it and since you are not sure what you are
> asking, that you cannot look it up yourself. If you knew what you were
> looking for, you would already have it.
thats what the archives/knowledge base are for.
http://www.escribe.com/computing/pcpqa/index.html
> The archive and the Knowledge base are good for people that have a little
> experience in the area, but in order to get there, you are going to have to
> ask some "obvious" questions and get some "snippy" responses.
no.. but, it does take some sense to know what to ask. search
engines are something you should understand before you try and
use em :)
keywords.. got a problem with an API.. type in the API call.
search engines are not like askjeeves.com :) you cannot type
"my palm program crashes.. help?"
and expect an answer.. it takes a bit more thought than that.
just because it crashes, doesn't mean you should dive in an
ask questions too.
a bit of background research may help solve your problem. when
the app crashed.. start using error routines such as:
ErrFatalDisplayIf(...);
to ensure you track down exactly what the problem is before you
ask whats wrong. i have seen a ton of bugs relating to the palmos
from people that really have nothing to do with the problem they
asked about :)
just a word of advice. a good programmer finds bugs :)
// az
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.ardiri.com/
--
For information on using the Palm Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, please see
http://www.palmos.com/dev/tech/support/forums/
