>> Not if those apps actually utilize their own internal
>preferences database
>> or whatnot to store information. Its usually easy to do...and it's a
>> recommended practice with Palm apps.
>
>But you have to DO that, and increase size of your application.
It's the zen of Palm programming. They're already about 20 - 25% of the
size of a similar Windows version, so it's not that tough to do. It's
like storing just a few fields of data...hardly noticeable. Actually,
my app just saves whatever current info to it's database automatically,
and the preference database recalls the last record and loads it when
the program is restarted. You don't have to save the form itself, just
a pointer to it. Not that bad at all, really. =)
>Now think about that situation:
>You developed database application, later you decide to add
>the field(s) to
>the database
>What does that mean ? It means that you would have to
>implement the layer
>that somehow
>isolates you from low level record mechanism. It is already
>done in windows
>OS.
Generally, I don't have to add new fields to a database like that.
When you're writing a Palm app, and you know what you're doing, you
make very sure to get those kinds of specifications down on paper from
the start. If new fields need to be added, you write a new structure,
then create a separate db. It's like making another table in windows...
now, when you read your data from the old db, you also check the new db
to see if there is data in the corresponding record there. Being a
programmer, I like being able to deal with the lower level stuff.
I can find ways to tweak things to make them run more effectively/
efficiently with my particular application, instead of using some
intermediary to process everything, regardless of special needs.
Then there's Sybase/Oracle Lite, but that's a whole other story. =)
That's one of the downsides to Microsoft's dumbing down of programming:
you have to just accept that the kernel or database engine is going to
deal with things a certain way, and move on. What I love about Palm
is that I can often do things the way I want to. That's a good part of
the reason why there are so many more applications out there for the Palm
than for CE/PPC.
-Rus
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