On Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 04:30:12AM -0800, Luc Le Blanc wrote: >Palm has been quick in the past to boast the wide software >offering for Palm OS, yet did very little to actually support the >developers who made their platform attractive, especially >freeware writers, while much of the offering was freeware. >Continued support from developers to migrate their apps to web OS >is just taken for granted after years of uncertainty about OS 6, >ALP and Nova. Today Palm says "forget about a compatibility layer, there's no >adaptation possible, just rebuild your apps from the >ground up with Javascript, HTML or CSS and stay with us, we need >you to make money!" > >Count me out!
I completely agree. At first, everything was just fantastic. Up through OS 4.x, I had all of the tools I needed, they all ran under multiple operating systems, and they worked very well. When Palm OS 5.x came along, that's when the lies and half-truths really started to become much more prevalent. The Simulator will be ported, don't worry! The Simulator bugs will be fixed, don't worry! Palm OS 6.x/Garnet/Topaz/Fuschia will be out Real Soon Now(tm), don't worry! With the Windows-centric OS 5.x development model, working on my software became much more problematic. POSE was such an amazingly useful tool for testing and debugging. But the Simulator? Buggy, crash happy, and about 1/10 as useful. And having to run it in a Windows virtual machine just made it that much more annoying. I certainly won't be following Palm into the great beyond this time. Personally, the next version of my software will be running on Android. I choose it because it is very likely the next PDA-ish/PDA-capable OS I will be using myself and because the user base can only grow for the forseeable future. Of course, unlike many of you, I do not make any money from my software and that permits a fair amount of latitude in making these choices. I don't envy you in having to weigh Palm's latest offering. Or maybe I'm just still pissed over that threatening legalese letter Palm sent me some seven years ago over usage of the word "Palm" in any context... :) -- --John Gruenenfelder Systems Manager, MKS Imaging Technology, LLC. Try Weasel Reader for PalmOS -- http://weaselreader.org "This is the most fun I've had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!" --Sam of Sam & Max -- For information on using the ACCESS Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, please see http://www.access-company.com/developers/forums/
