I would say that you have correctly evaluated those 3 tools. What we find is that C (in the Dev Suite) requires the most code, and SF the least. What you give up is low-level control (although you can get that back with C "extensions" in SF); what you gain is abstraction. Less code means less development time and less debugging. HB++ to me sits right in the middle between C and SF. For me, and my customers, the need for a run-time engine is of no consequence since the SF run-time is free.
StyleTap is interesting, but they have trouble supporting anything other than "inside the box" Palm apps. It took them a long time to get barcode scanner support and they do not have any solution for mobile printing, which is mandatory in many of my applications. >From a business perspective, cross-platform development to WM/CE is a key differentiator. And while SF apps cannot have all the bells and whistles (and eye candy) of a Visual Studio project, they are far more efficient in use of storage space and processor power. But that's a moving target because MS has finally figured out that data gathering and display represent 99% of all applications, and they are finally beginning to devise code generators to ease the burden of developing basic business apps. ____________________________________________ Lee Church www.mobitechsystems.com From: %%email.bounce%@ [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2008 5:08 PM To: Palm Developer Forum Subject: Re: Recommended IDE I am currently considering HB++, Satellite Forms and the Garnet OS Dev Suite. The satellite holds my interest mainly because of its claim to support both Pocket PC and Palm applications. In other words, I could build for a palm device then change my target and build for a ppc device. Obviously, there are some limitations here but nothing else can claim this. I've already tried the HB++ and was pretty pleased with what I saw. I think it would probably accomplish what I want. My main pro on this is that is compiles everything as a true PRC file with no need for a runtime engine or interpreter. I haven't had a lot of luck with the Dev suite yet. I was not able to grasp the IDE as quickly as I did on HB++ and SF. I'm a little worried that building the forms with all the components would take a long time using the Dev Suite than if I used the other two. Unless, they have some kind of "toolbox" like Visual Studio has and can just drag items to your gui and build it that way. I would say the Dev Suite is the most flexible by far if I wanted to only develop for the Palm OS. It would give me more control but would obviously take more time to develop something than the other products would. /************************************************** Heath Schaefer Product Engineer Sporlan Division, Parker Hannifin Corporation 636.239.7711 x243 **************************************************/ Christopher Stamper Sent by: %%email.bounce%% 01/08/2008 02:41 PM Please respond to "Palm Developer Forum" <palm-dev-forum@news.palmos.com> To "Palm Developer Forum" <palm-dev-forum@news.palmos.com> cc Subject Re: Recommended IDE Your right. Sat. forms isn't very good. IMO, at least. I'd recommend Dev Suite, but if you don't know C, then HB++ is pretty good. On Jan 8, 2008 3:14 PM, Caio Proiete < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: [quote]for basic business applications you cannot beat Satellite Forms (http://www.satelliteforms.net/)[/quote] <http://www.satelliteforms.net/%29%5B/quote%5D> Actually the Handheld Basic (HB++) beats Sattelite Forms on all aspects, including productivity, performance, and price. Take a look: http://www.handheld-basic.com <http://www.handheld-basic.com/> Cheers, Caio Proiete www.pdaexpert.net <http://www.pdaexpert.net/> -- For information on using the ACCESS Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, please see http://www.access-company.com/developers/forums/ -- Christopher Stamper [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://tinyurl.com/2ooncg -- For information on using the ACCESS Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, please see http://www.access-company.com/developers/forums/ _____ "PLEASE NOTE: The preceding information may be confidential or privileged. It only should be used or disseminated for the purpose of conducting business with Parker. If you are not an intended recipient, please notify the sender by replying to this message and then delete the information from your system. Thank you for your cooperation." -- For information on using the ACCESS Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, please see http://www.access-company.com/developers/forums/ -- For information on using the ACCESS Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, please see http://www.access-company.com/developers/forums/