Os 5.2

[Lordbane]

http://www.palmos.com/dev/support/docs/palmos50/os52overview.html

Anyone know if we can upgrade ?

[mshaf]

Good question especially since the new larger memory sticks are coming out! OS 5.0 apparently crashes with sticks larger than 128MB according to the article.

[clieconverted]

I stopped into CompUSA on Friday to purchase an NX60 once I determined a couple of quick questions about the MP3 (never used or owned one before) and the salesperson helped a great deal, answered the questions. But they didn't have any available. He didn't try to upsell me to the NX70V.

He told me they are waiting for a new shipment that will have OS5.1 on it. Now I wonder if Sony jumped to OS5.2 instead? But it does make some sense about an updated model out. CompUSA has a $70 instant internet rebate going, Sony Style.com is giving a FREE $85 case and now CompUSA is pushing the NX70V with $50 off.

So now I have to wait a month or less. Expected delivery was mid to late February. This is kind of encouraging sine Sony has charged for OS updates in the past and you have to send it in.

[markat7088]

We'd better be able to upgrade - these bigger memory sticks are just around the corner...

[markat7088]

http://www.sandisk.com/download/photos/retail/MSP_1GB.jpg

[Massman82]

Finally! A common API for the virtual graffiti area!

Does anyone know if it will be the same one that the NR or NX uses?

[ClieMarty]

hopefully, as those are IMHO the only devices with VG yet. Just hope that 4.1.2 with Graffitti 2 will be available as update for NR.

[Massman82]

I was more referring to the Garmin PDA that will have VG. I hope they use the same API as one of the devices mentioned above.

[Eric S]

Originally posted by ClieMarty
hopefully, as those are IMHO the only devices with VG yet. Just hope that 4.1.2 with Graffitti 2 will be available as update for NR.

Actually, I'm not even sure the Clie was the FIRST PalmOS PDA that had VG. How old is the NR line? The HandEra 330 did that almost two years ago (announced April 23, 2001, shipped in May). There's also one other VG PalmOS PDA, I think made by Seimens. The Garmin's got me hyped, but I don't think it counts since it's not shipping.

Sony's Virtual Silkscreen API is actually one of their better APIs, except for one thing. Until I started programming for Clies, I never had to load libraries to call functions built into the OS. On my HandEra 330, I called the HandEra-specific functions to change the screen scaling and such just like any other OS syscall. On the Clies, many of the builtin functionality (software, not hardware) resides in libraries that must be located before use, and then, you've got to pass the library refnum back every time you make a call to the library.

This is much better than some of Sony's other API designs, that require the programmer to jump through hoops.

Determine if the PDA is a Sony. If not, stop here.
Request the feature set structure.
Examine bitmaps in the structure to determine if the feature is available
Examine bitmaps in the structure to determine if the library is available
Examine bitmaps in the structure to determine if the library is loaded.
locate the library used to control the feature

Mind you, the way this normally works (At least on my HandEra, haven't done any other OEM programming or OS 4/5 programming) is that you make a syscall to find out if a specific feature is available. You get back a value that represents the version of the feature, or NULL if it isn't present. You then use it.

And don't get me started on the JogAssist programmer API/interaction. That was the worst case of NIH I've seen to date in all of the API's I've seen. The HiRes lib is a pain as well. I still think that aside from the fact that they didn't pixel-double and didn't do color, HandEra was the company that got HiRes right on PalmOS.

Interesting, was just reading about 5.2, and they've extended the Streaming Sound API. Hopefully, Sony will get around to providing an implementation of the Streaming Sound API soon.

You know, I wouldn't even mind having to pay to upgrade my NX to a newer version of PalmOS, provided that the newer version offers enough extras compared to the price.

And those "Grafitti 2 workarounds" are going to be a nightmare from the point of view of some programmers. 5.2 will break programs that survived 3.X->5.0 unchanged.

[Massman82]

Originally posted by Eric S
And those "Grafitti 2 workarounds" are going to be a nightmare from the point of view of some programmers. 5.2 will break programs that survived 3.X->5.0 unchanged.

Why? All programs work perfectly with Jot on my NX!

[Eric S]

Originally posted by Massman82


Why? All programs work perfectly with Jot on my NX!

Because a Jot K is two strokes, and the first gets sent as an "l", then when the second stroke is made, it gets sent as a backspace and a "k" There's some software (far from a majority, mind you) that will react as soon as it sees the "l" and by the time it gets the backspace and "k", it's too late.

I'll bet that you just haven't hit one of the programs/features that are broken. Programs that use L and any other letter that starts with the same Jot stroke as a menu or command shortcut will have problems. Programs that do text-completion will break as well.

It could also be that these are issues that the company that writes Jot has worked around, but they haven't licensed everything to Palm, so there's still a reason to buy the full Jot product. Remember, Grafitti 2 isn't Jot, it's "based on Jot."

Check the page at http://www.palmos.com/dev/support/docs/palmos50/os52overview.html for details. That's a page linked off the original that gives a rundown of the kinds of issues programmers will need to be aware of for PalmOS 5.2 compatibility.

Except for Hacks, the 5.0 breakage is all stuff that Palm has been telling programmers not to do since 3.0. This, however, will break programs that were written to comply with all the guidelines right up to the announcement of Grafitti 2. That's what I'm saying. I don't think we're looking at the end of the world or anything.