What I really dont understand however: We see that OS1 was multi task-capable. Why didnt they release the API?
Two big reasons:
1) The original 68K devices were based on the Kadak AMX kernel, and our license to use that kernel forbid us from exposing more than one thread to user programs.
2) Because of this, a lot of the operating system code in Palm OS 1 through 5 was written in a way that wasn't multithreading safe. We could do this because we knew exactly what was going to be running at any time, and knew that internal system tasks wouldn't be using parts of the OS's functionality.
As for media players, on Palm OS 5, there is specific support for creating a new thread for sound recording or playback. That's the only multithreading that is officially supported for user applications in Palm OS before Palm OS Cobalt 6.0.
-- Ben Combee, Technical Lead, Developer Services, PalmSource, Inc. "Combee on Palm OS" weblog: http://palmos.combee.net/ Developer Fourm Archives: http://news.palmos.com/read/all_forums/
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