>I have a lot of pull with the webmaster... however, I'd like >specific feedback on >what was confusing about the DB recipe.
Of course. For one thing, all of the FrmAlert() commands return an "undefined identifier" error, so I assume there is a missing include file someplace. The Palm Reference manual claims it is "forms.h" but I have that included, and it still complains. Since I didn't care about this, I just commented them all out. Second, I found it confusing to have the open database and close database in the same paragraph and code sample without any records stored in between the open and close. Maybe it's just me, but am I supposed to create and close a database, then create records, then attach records, or create a database, create and insert records, and then close the database? Apparently either way should work, but I haven't gotten either way to work yet. Third, in the create a record part, the recipe locks a memory HANDLE, but unlocks a memory POINTER. That may be right, but it looks weird, and is way counter intuitive, at least to some of us. An explanation would make look less like carelessness. My overall impression is that someone who knows what they are doing wouldn't have too much trouble with it; but, let's face it: the experts aren't the target audience for anything called a "recipe". > Did you read that chapter on databases in the "Palm OS Companion" >book that's part > of the Palm OS SDK? < Yes, but it wasn't that instructive. It explains each operation in isolation, as though nothing else existed. I also spent several days pawing around in the Datebook application. That isn't the best approach, because the Datebook does about a billion things that have nothing to do with databasing. I am working on a test program that just allows the user to creates a database, type some data into fields, and close the database. Something like that would be a lot more instructive than anything I have seen so far. If I ever get it working, would you like to see it? >The Neil Rhodes book has plenty of good material on Palm OS DBs. < I'm sorry, I'm not familar with it. What is the title? >If a DB has the "backup" flag set, it will be copied by the backup >conduit to a PDB >file in the user's Palm Desktop folder. < I can't find any mention of a backup flag or function in the database section of the Companion. There is one reference to a database backup flag in a table of database attributes in the Reference. And after a lot of searching, I did stumble across DmSetDatabaseInfo() with its 13(!) passed values, but I never would have found it if you hadn't mentioned it. I will try the backup flag. Thank you for your continuing patience. Gary Olmstead -- For information on using the Palm Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, please see http://www.palmos.com/dev/support/forums/
