Table of Contents

Palm OS SDK Documentation

What This Volume Contains

Why Programming for Palm OS Is Different

Screen Size

Quick Turnaround Expected

PC Connectivity

Input Methods

Power

Memory

File System

Backward Compatibility

Palm OS Programming Concepts

Programming Tools

Where to Go From Here

Designing Your Application

Integrating Programs With the Palm OS Environment

Naming Conventions

Achieving Optimum Performance

Assigning a Creator ID

Working With Databases

Writing Robust Code

Avoiding Potential Pitfalls

User Interface Guidelines

Understanding the Palm OS UI Design Philosophy

Creating a Palm OS User Interface

Palm OS Resource Selection: List or Table?

Localization Guidelines

Making Your Application Run on Different Devices

Running New Applications on an Older Device

Compiling Older Applications With The Latest SDK

Launch Codes and Launching an Application

Responding to Launch Codes

Responding to Normal Launch

Responding to Other Launch Codes

Launching Applications Programmatically

Creating Your Own Launch Codes

Stopping an Application

Launch Code Summary

The Application Event Loop

Low-Level Event Management

Event Translation: Pen Strokes to Key Events

Pen Queue Management

Key Queue Management

Auto-Off Control

System Event Manager Summary

Palm OS Resource Summary

Drawing on the Palm OS Device

The Draw State

Drawing Functions

Forms, Windows, and Dialogs

Alert Dialogs

Progress Dialogs

Controls

Buttons

Popup Trigger

Selector Trigger

Repeating Button

Push Buttons

Check Boxes

Sliders and Feedback Sliders

Fields

Menus

Dynamic Menus

Menu Shortcuts

Tables

Table Event

Lists

Categories

Bitmaps

Labels

Scroll Bars

Custom UI Objects

Dynamic UI

Dynamic User Interface Functions

Color and Grayscale Support

Color Table

UI Color List

Insertion Point

Text

Working With Text As Strings

Fonts in Palm OS 3.0 and Later

Receiving User Input

The Graffiti Manager

The Key Manager

The Pen Manager

Application Launcher

Summary of User Interface API

Introduction to Palm OS Memory Use

Hardware Architecture

PC Connectivity

Memory Architecture

Heap Overview

The Memory Manager

Memory Manager Structures

Using the Memory Manager

Optimizing Memory Manager Performance

Summary of Memory Management

The Data Manager

Records and Databases

Structure of a Database Header

Using the Data Manager

The Resource Manager

Structure of a Resource Database Header

Using the Resource Manager

File Streaming Application Program Interface

Using the File Streaming API

Summary of Files and Databases

Alarms

Setting an Alarm

Alarm Scenario

Setting a Procedure Alarm

Features

The System Version Feature

Application-Defined Features

Using the Feature Manager

Feature Memory

Notifications

Registering for a Notification

Writing a Notification Handler

Sleep and Wake Notifications

Sound

Synchronous and Asynchronous Sound

Using the Sound Manager

Sound Preferences Compatibility Information

System Boot and Reset

Soft Reset

Soft Reset + Up Arrow

Hard Reset

System Reset Calls

Hardware Interaction

Palm OS Power Modes

Guidelines for Application Developers

Power Management Calls

The Microkernel

Retrieving the ROM Serial Number

Time

Using Real-Time Clock Functions

Using System Ticks Functions

Floating-Point

Using Floating Point Arithmetic

Using 1.0 Floating-Point Functionality

Summary of System Features

Serial Hardware

Byte Ordering

Serial Communications Architecture Hierarchy

The Serial Manager

Using the Serial Manager

The New Serial Manager

Checking for the New Serial Manager

What's New About the New Serial Manager

About the New Serial Manager

Using the New Serial Manager

New Serial Manager Example

Writing a Serial or Virtual Device Driver

The Connection Manager

The Serial Link Protocol

SLP Packet Structures

Transmitting an SLP Packet

Receiving an SLP Packet

The Serial Link Manager

Using the Serial Link Manager

Summary of Serial Communications

Exchange Manager

Overview

Exchange Manager and Launch Codes

IR Library

IrDA Stack

Accessing the IR Library

Summary of Beaming

Net Library

About the Net Library

Net Library Usage Steps

Obtaining the Net Library's Reference Number

Setting Up Berkeley Socket API

Setup and Configuration Calls

Opening the Net Library

Closing the Net Library

Version Checking

Network I/O and Utility Calls

Berkeley Sockets API Functions

Extending the Network Login Script Support

Internet Library

System Requirements

Initialization and Setup

Accessing Web Pages

Asynchronous Operation

Using the Low Level Calls

Cache Overview

Internet Library Network Configurations

Summary of Network Communication

Overview of the Palm.Net System

Palm Query Applications

Palm.Net System Overview

System Version Checking

Using Clipper to Display Information

Launching Other Applications from Clipper

Sending Messages

New keyDownEvent Key Codes

Over the Air Characters

Localization Guidelines

Using Overlays to Localize Resources

Text Manager and International Manager

Characters

Declaring Character Variables

Using Character Constants

Missing and Invalid Characters

Retrieving a Character's Attributes

Virtual Characters

Retrieving the Character Encoding

Strings

Manipulating Strings

Performing String Pointer Manipulation

Truncating Displayed Text

Comparing Strings

Global Find

Dynamically Determining a String's Contents

Dates

Numbers

Compatibility Information

Notes on the Japanese Implementation

Japanese Character Encoding

Japanese Character Input

Displaying Japanese Strings on UI Objects

Displaying Error Messages

Summary of Localization

Displaying Development Errors

Using the Error Manager Macros

Understanding the Try-and-Catch Mechanism

Using the Try and Catch Mechanism

Summary of Debugging API

Creating a Standard IO Application

Creating a Standard IO Provider Application

Summary of Standard IO