>1. - Is this forum strictly meant to address programming issues, or
>are larger themes relevant to application development on the Palm
>platform appropriate here?
It is really for discussing programming issues... posing coding questions,
sharing knowledge and information, giving feedback to Palm and Metrowerks
engineers, and so forth. Sometimes that might not be referring to coding
and API issues, but it usually does.
Sometimes it means talking about the user-level features (e.g. "We need a
scsi connector on the device") because the requests stem from development
requirements... but comments like "I wish the case was neon green" wouldn't
usually be helpful here - forward them to the user support folks because it
is a user request instead of an engineering one. Ditto for pricing or
marketing issues, which engineers have relatively little input on.
I guess that last bit actually gets closer to the intent: if programmers,
developers and engineers are the (only?) ones who would answer the question
or solve the problem, then it fits here. The more "meatier" the
discussions are here, and the less they dissolve into what you'd expect to
find in a user-oriented group, no matter how geeky the users, the better.
You're also talking with the folks at Palm and Metrowerks who are your
representatives and advocates - OS changes and product changes happen
because of the input from this forum. I consider that one of the most
important parts of my job, and also the most fun :-)
That's my opinion, anyway, of what makes this forum good. Other insights
and suggestions are extremely welcome; tell us what you think works well or
should work better! (More mailing lists on other topics? Fewer?
Newsgroups? Web-based discussion boards?)
>2. - Do alternate venues for discussing Palm based development models
>and processes exist?
There are the massena.com newsgroups, and the entrepreneur's forum, too.
And of course the other mailing lists for conduits, the emulator, and PQA
development... which have similar charters but are for more focussed
discussion.
>3. - Is this forum moderated or censored in any way? (I doubt it, but
>I have got to ask).
Nope.
-David Fedor
Palm Developer Support
