Eddie Meduza wrote:
For the last month I read here and there about Palm OS, 1, 2, 3.5, 4, 5 (Garnet)
and even 6 (Cobalt).
To tell you the truth I'm bit confused about the target OS for my app', this has
become a real pain in the ___, some code doesn't work here, some doesn't work
there and so on, even the documentation on Palm OS web site doesn't clear
things up ...
I'm bothering you because I need advise. I need to know what is the best OS
to target my app'?
That's your decision. The more versions you support, the more people can
use your software, obviously. It is possible to make software that works
on all versions. Whether you want to do that is a different matter, though.
It does make certain things significantly harder for certain kinds of tasks.
(The API docs generally do a good job telling you which functions are
available on what versions of the OS.)
Anyway, practically speaking, the answer most people come up with is to
target 4.0 or later. Except for PNOs (native ARM code) and sampled sound,
OS 4.x gives you basically all the features that OS 5.x gives you. And
unless you bother with PNOs, which for a simple app is not necessary, it
generally isn't harder to support OS 4.x and 5.x than it is to support
just 5.x.
Plus, there is one further advantage of being compatible with 4.x: if
your app can run on that, then it can run on the Emulator. The newer
devices (5.x devices) all have Simulators available for them, and they
are good for testing for compatibility with that device, but the Emulator
has one or two debugging features that the Simulators don't have, for
example memorly leak detection.
Also, there are still a few people out there with 4.x devices who might
buy your product, depending on what it is. So if there isn't any great
need to get the features of OS 5.x, then it's often preferable to choose
to support 4.x and above.
Having said that, if you are doing something like a game and you need
a huge amount of speed, then you probably should go with 5.x and develop
ARM-native code. That'll be a big pain in certain ways, and it requires
advanced knowledge about Palm OS, but it's the only real way to get the
full speed of the hardware.
- Logan
--
For information on using the PalmSource Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe,
please see http://www.palmos.com/dev/support/forums/
