Subject: Re: How to intercept application beaming? From: "Dr. Vesselin Bontchev" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2005 13:15:36 -0000 X-Message-Number: 13
> At this point I'm starting to wonder whether the interception of > beaming of applications is possible at all...
Yep, that's apparently the case. :-((
More precisely, it seems that under PalmOS 5.x, it is *impossible* for a user application to receive PDB or PRC files sent by the *launcher* of another device. You can do it under PalmOS 4.x. You can do it if they are beamed by something else (e.g., Filez). But you can't do it under PalmOS 5.x, if they are being beamed by the launcher.
References:
http://news.palmos.com/read/messages?id=151102 http://news.palmos.com/read/messages?id=177852 http://news.palmos.com/read/messages?id=178008
These are basically messages from people who have encountered that very same problem. None of them has been able to solve it and nobody on this forum has answered their messages, telling them how to do it.
Would be nice if we could hear something from a Palm insider about this issue. Is it a bug? Is it intentional? Why does it happen? Is there a workaround?
Sigh, I'm starting to get really frustrated by this sorry excuse of an operating system! It's great for simple applications that show some trivial forms, get user input and store it in a database. But as soon as you try to do some deeper systems programming, you literally have to fight the OS on every step. :-((( It's not the single-thread-single-tasking architecture that's the problem, either. MS-DOS was STST too, but there these things were *so* much easier; you could do anything you wanted, without the OS constantly tripping you. :-(
It is kind-of interesting that the capabilities you need to create a valid anti-virus program are related to the capabilities needed to create a valid virus in the first place.
The problems you are having is probably one of the reasons that so few Palm OS virus's exist.
However, you should not 'dis' PalmOS, just because you are having difficulty writing an anti-virus program.
I don't believe that Palm OS was deliberately constructed to make it difficult for virus writers, but it does tend to make it difficult for them.
My suggestion (again) is you need to setup a rock-solid NDA with PalmSource, persuade them that you are providing a necessary service, and get access to to the low level knowledge you require.
Roger Stringer Marietta Systems, Inc. (www.rf-tp.com)
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