Palm OS Programming

569 Pages·2002·3.004 MB·English

by  Glenn Bachmann

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Glenn Bachmann
Palm OS
Programming
201 West 103rd Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46290
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Palm OS Programming Associate Publisher
Michael Stephens
Copyright2003 by Sams Publishing
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All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored
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in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic,
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ity for errors or omissions. Nor is any liability assumed for damages
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International Standard Book Number: 0-672-32413-X
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Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2002100932
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Printed in the United States of America
Indexer
First Printing: October 2002 Larry Sweazy
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Contents at a Glance
Introduction.................................................................................................1
Part I Getting Started with Palm Programming 5
1 Introduction to Palm Programming and CodeWarrior..........................7
2 Anatomy of a Palm Application......................................................17
3 Rapid Development Using POSE, the Palm OS Emulator.....................43
4 Debugging Techniques for Palm Applications....................................55
5 Creating and Managing Resources...................................................67
Part II Programming the Palm User Interface 75
6 Interacting with the User: Forms.....................................................77
7 Form Elements ............................................................................97
8 Button Controls.........................................................................103
9 Labels and Fields........................................................................121
10 Giving the Users a Choice: Lists and Pop-up Triggers........................131
11 Tables.......................................................................................153
12 Menus......................................................................................177
13 Drawing Graphics.......................................................................193
14 Handling Pen Events...................................................................213
15 Adding Color to Palm Applications...............................................225
Part III Memory, Databases, and Files 237
16 Palm OS Memory Management.....................................................239
17 Understanding Palm OS Databases................................................245
18 Palm Databases and Record Management.......................................255
19 Categories.................................................................................273
20 Expansion Memory Cards and the Virtual File System......................299
Part IV Communications 329
21 Serial Communications...............................................................331
22 Infrared Communications: OBEX and Exchange Manager.................349
23 Using the Infrared Library............................................................365
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24 A Survey of Wireless Options for Palm Developers...........................377
25 Palm.NET and Web Clipping........................................................387
26 Using TCP/IP and Net.lib.............................................................403
Part V Advanced Topics 423
27 Overview of Conduits.................................................................425
28 Programming Palm OS Conduits...................................................431
29 Shared Libraries: Extending the Palm OS........................................461
30 Other Advanced Project Types: Multi-Segment and Static Libraries......481
31 Saving Program State: Application Preferences.................................489
32 Palm OS 5 and ARM: Looking into the Future.................................495
Index.......................................................................................503
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Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Part I Getting Started with Palm Programming 5
1 Introduction to Palm Programming and CodeWarrior 7
The Palm Computing Platform.........................................................9
What Is a Palm Application?..........................................................10
How Are Palm Applications Written?...............................................11
CodeWarrior and Development Tool Choices....................................12
PRC-Tools...........................................................................12
Falch.net.............................................................................13
AppForge............................................................................13
NS Basic..............................................................................13
Satellite Forms.....................................................................13
What Tool Is Best for You?.............................................................13
Tools Used in This Book................................................................14
The Palm SDK.............................................................................15
Summary....................................................................................15
2 Anatomy of a Palm Application 17
PilotMain and the Smallest Palm Program Ever.................................17
Launch Codes......................................................................18
Checking the Palm OS Version...............................................19
The Main Form............................................................................21
Events................................................................................22
The Main Form Handler........................................................25
Hello Palm!.................................................................................26
The Source Code..........................................................................27
Creating a CodeWarrior Project for “Hello Palm”...............................37
Creating a GCC Project for “Hello Palm”.........................................39
Building and Running “Hello Palm”................................................40
Summary....................................................................................41
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vi Palm OS Programming
3 Rapid Development Using POSE, the Palm OS Emulator 43
Where to Get POSE......................................................................44
ROM Images................................................................................44
Where to Get ROMs..............................................................45
The Different Kinds of ROMs..................................................46
Skins..........................................................................................46
Creating, Loading, and Saving POSE Sessions....................................47
Installing Applications and Databases..............................................49
Taking Screenshots.......................................................................49
Creating a Bound Copy of POSE.....................................................50
Advanced POSE Techniques...........................................................50
POSE Warnings and Error Messages.........................................51
Logging..............................................................................51
Profiling.............................................................................52
TCP/IP and Serial Communications Support.............................52
Gremlins.............................................................................52
The OS 5 Simulator......................................................................53
Summary....................................................................................54
4 Debugging Techniques for Palm Applications 55
Why Palm Debugging Is Different...................................................56
Defensive Programming................................................................56
Effective Debugging Techniques for the Palm....................................57
The Palm Error Manager........................................................57
FrmCustomAlert...................................................................58
Logging..............................................................................59
The CodeWarrior Debugger............................................................60
A Debugging Session.............................................................60
Setting Breakpoints...............................................................61
Stepping Through Code.........................................................62
Debugging to a Palm Device...................................................62
Other Debugging Tools.................................................................63
Using Gremlins to Find Problems....................................................63
Summary....................................................................................64
5 Creating and Managing Resources 67
What Is a Palm Resource?..............................................................68
Why Use Constructor?..................................................................68
Why Use PilRC?...........................................................................68
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Contents vii
Creating a Resource Project File......................................................69
Creating Resources in Constructor...........................................69
What’s a Resource Fork?........................................................70
Version-Control Considerations in Constructor.........................71
A Constructor Example: “Hello Palm” Revisited.........................71
A PilRC Example: “Hello Palm” Revisited.................................72
Summary....................................................................................74
Part II Programming the Palm User Interface 75
6 Interacting with the User: Forms 77
The Palm User Interface................................................................78
What Is a Form?..........................................................................79
Examples of Forms in the Built-in Palm Applications..................79
Programming with Forms..............................................................80
Alerts.................................................................................81
Custom Forms.....................................................................86
Using Forms to Capture User Input.................................................90
More Complex Forms: Event Handlers.............................................92
Summary....................................................................................95
7 Form Elements 97
What Kinds of Form Elements Are Available?....................................98
Buttons...............................................................................98
Input Fields.........................................................................99
Labels.................................................................................99
Lists...................................................................................99
Triggers.............................................................................100
Tables...............................................................................101
Custom Gadgets.........................................................................101
Summary..................................................................................102
8 Button Controls 103
What Is a Control Object?...........................................................103
Types of Control Objects......................................................104
What Is a Button?.......................................................................105
Types of Buttons.................................................................105
Guidelines for the Use of Buttons..................................................107
General Guidelines on Buttons.....................................................108
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Using Buttons in Your Application................................................108
A Simple Survey Application........................................................108
Grouped Push Buttons.........................................................109
Repeating Buttons and the Arrow Increment...........................109
Initializing the Form...........................................................118
Trapping Control Events......................................................119
Summary..................................................................................120
9 Labels and Fields 121
Form Labels...............................................................................122
Input Fields...............................................................................122
Using Constructor to Create Labels and Fields.................................123
Using Labels and Fields in Your Application....................................125
Just What the Doctor Ordered......................................................126
Summary..................................................................................130
10 Giving the Users a Choice: Lists and Pop-up Triggers 131
Lists in the Palm Environment.....................................................132
Examples of Lists in Action on the Palm.................................132
Pop-up Lists.......................................................................132
Guidelines for Using Lists in an Application....................................133
Creating List Resources................................................................133
Usable ..............................................................................134
Visible Items......................................................................134
List Items..........................................................................134
Creating Pop-up List Resources.....................................................135
Adding List and Pop-up List Handling to Your Application................136
More Complex Handling—Drawing Your Own List...................137
More Complex Handling—Trapping List Events.......................138
Pop-up List Handling..........................................................138
A Shopping List Revisited.............................................................138
Summary..................................................................................151
11 Tables 153
What Is a Table?.........................................................................153
Table Functionality.....................................................................154
When to Use Tables Instead of Lists...............................................154
Adding Tables to Your Program.....................................................155
Table Initialization..............................................................156
Table View Management......................................................157
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Table Data Mapping............................................................159
Table Drawing....................................................................161
Putting It All Together: FishTable..................................................164
Tables and Databases...................................................................175
Summary..................................................................................176
12 Menus 177
What Is a Menu?........................................................................178
Menus in Action on the Palm...............................................178
Menu Nomenclature...........................................................179
Guidelines for Menu Usage..........................................................180
Using Constructor to Create Menus...............................................181
Handling Menu Events in Your Application....................................183
Summary..................................................................................191
13 Drawing Graphics 193
The Palm Display.......................................................................193
Screen Sizes.......................................................................194
Color and Grayscale............................................................194
Palm OS Graphics Primitives........................................................195
Lines................................................................................195
Fill Patterns.......................................................................196
Rectangles.........................................................................196
Drawing Text.....................................................................197
Bitmaps.............................................................................197
The Palm OS Window Model........................................................197
What Is a Window?.............................................................197
Creating a Window.............................................................198
Multiple Windows..............................................................199
PalmDraw: A Graphics-Drawing Demonstration Program..................199
Setting Up for Multiple Windows..........................................207
The Line-Drawing and Rectangle-Drawing Windows.................208
The Text-Drawing Window...................................................209
The Bitmap-Drawing Window...............................................210
Summary..................................................................................211
14 Handling Pen Events 213
What Is a Pen Event?..................................................................214
How Pen Events and Control Events Coexist...................................214
Pen Events and Graffiti................................................................214
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