Comments on: Cybersaurus Review for Palm OS

As I posted last week, I've never seen anything in computing where within the same version of an OS (OS 5.0 to OS 5.4.9) so many apps have been broken and/or crippled.

Between the apathy of the POS software developers and Palm's continued hacking/tweaking/breaking of the OS, compatability with anything not updated in the past 18 months is becoming a very uncertain thing indeed.

Perhaps Palm is quietly acknowledging this on the basis of data claiming that "Treo users only install X handful of 3-rd party applications on their devices" and Palm's increasingly generous out-of-the-box software bundles.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

From my experience, applications break within releases of 5.x because the programmer wasn't using the Palm OS API properly in the first place. It appears that previous versions of the Palm OS handled or ignored improper calls when it could in the production ROMs to avoid crashes.

I personally noticed problems in my applications when devices with non-volatile memory were introduced (Tungsten E2, LifeDrive, Treo 650). The DmQueryRecord API call views records in the storage memory. However, a rogue DmQueryRecord call in my code was updating those records instead of using DmGetRecord. Previous versions of the Palm OS forgave my sin. The non-volatile versions punished me out of necessity until I discovered it and fixed it. :)

Good. Blame the victim. PalmSource is completely innocent.

TVoR

Not to mention all the $ handed to Palm for buggy hardware that pulls the rug out from under a handful of apps every time a minor OS "upgrade" occurs.

And not with Palm's wacky button reassigning on NVFS devices, certain games that still RUN are nigh unusable unless they have all buttons remappable. Some fairly modern (updated/released within the passt 12 months) entertainment titles still have major issues with the home button introduced on the LD, TX & 700P.

The T3, despite its very shaky hardware, OS-wise, is still the most robust Palm product of recent vintage.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

Readers: Here are the guidelines that TVoR used to reply to my post.

1. Don't confirm other people's assertions for yourself. That takes time away from writing dribble.

2. Use lots and lots of boldface. Arguments appear much stronger in boldface.

3. Overreact. Imply that operating system manufacturers are never at fault.

4. Important: Write post after post about a handheld operating system that you believe is dead. Keep writing about how dead it is for months and months after you convinced yourself that it's dead.

The only true victims are the readers of this forum that have to wade through TVoR's posts. Long term brain damage, that...

TVoR

P.S. While my post used boldface, you on the other hand are a BOLDFACED LI*R.

The facts defeated TVoR in the Motorola Q topic. The facts defeated TVoR in this topic.

No boldface was necessary...

No boldface was necessary...

Please keep up with the BOLDFACED LI*S.

TVoR
(Undefeated, and still the champion)

I think this game looks for devices with a fast CPU primarily with a large helping of DBCache of secondary importance.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P