Hi!
> Could some outline for me the benefits of using C instead of some > of the higher level development tools (AppForge, Satellite Forms, Pendragon etc.)? > > Alternatively... could someone enlighten me as to what is lost by using these higher >level tools? > I have used C/C++, Pendragon Forms and Satellite Forms on the Palm. My feeling so far is, that Satellite Forms and Pendragon are great time savers when your application fits the domain for which they are optimized, i.e. data collection applications. They will also only save you time as long as you do things their way. That includes their way of organizing data on the Palm, and their way of synchronizing to a back end server. As soon as you deviate from that path you are in for a poorly documented world of pain :-( I tried to synchronize SatForms with a Java backend on a Linux server instead of their ActiveX/Dbase backend for Windoze, and despite their documentation it took a dedicated effort and some experimenting to achieve that. You shouldn't get me wrong though. Since the application was a data collection app the authoring process for the data collection client on the Palm was extremely easy and painless. Overall SatForms has saved me a good amount of time. BTW: Pendragon was never flexible enough for my needs. I dumped it in favor of SatForms. With C/C++ you have full control over the format of your data. It also allows you to link in Sybase/Oracle/DB2, which should make it easier to synchronize with an enterprise backend server. If you are developing forms based data collection apps you will have to take care of all the forms and event handling. This can be very tedious. If your app tries to achieve sth. special that requires unhindered access to the OS then C/C++ is obviously the way to go. So, like I said: Look at the kind of app you are planning to develop and if it clearly is high level data collection with no bells and whistles, go for SatForms, otherwise choose C/C++. Cheers, Tilo -- For information on using the Palm Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, please see http://www.palmos.com/dev/tech/support/forums/
