Programming language for Palm OS?

[Sombrio]

Hey all.

I was wondering if someone could recommend a simple and effective programming language for the Palm OS. I've been doing some research into the different options (Smalltalk, PocketC, etc) but I can't decide what the best thing to go with is.

I have a good idea for a game (I do graphics for Xbox games for my r/l job) and I have fairly basic programming skills from years ago when I used to fool around with C and Basic, but nothing too advanced. I would like, ideally, to find a language which compiles into .PRC files (ie. doesn't require installed extras like PocketC does).

Can anyone point me in the right direction? Smalltalk seems pretty good, but I'm having trouble finding good, simple tutorials which will get me going (specifically tutorials on graphics, but also just simple program examples).

Anyway, any help you all could give would be appreciated.

[FrankG]

http://www.palmos.com/dev/tools/ has a thorough list of resources as does this page http://www.winikoff.net/palm/dev.html

Not sure if you're looking strictly for a PalmOS based development environment but if a Windows based one is okay, OrbWorks, the PocketC makers, offer OrbForms Developer. It is C like, creates stand alone PRCs, has a very decent set of pre-built object classes, and has a nice IDE. The apps it produces are OS5 compatible and they recently released an update that supports the jog dial and 5-way selector (is that what it's called?) and HiRes drawing via the standard PalmOS interface which, of course, doesn't include the Clie HiRes screen. :(

After slogging around with the barebones SDK C coding, I'm grateful to have a lot of that complexity handled for me.

I am not tied into the OrbForms product or OrbWorks in any way; I'm just a happy user.

Good luck,
Frank

[spiderman951]

I'm just starrting to program for my clie and I'm useing pocket C. It is working fine for me but I'm not doing a lot of graphics.

[Zork]

Hey Sombrio,

some good starting point is

http://www.palmsource.com/developers/

and the standard tool for doin POS development is at

http://www.metrowerks.com/MW/Develop/Desktop/PalmOS/Professional/Default.htm

[Sombrio]

Great... thanks for the advice, I'll have a look at those. Codewarrior seems like a good solution, but I'm hoping to find something that takes care of some of the tasks for me. I'm familiar with programming, but it has been a while :)

[TheSpies]

You can also use visual basic if you pick up appforge:

www.appforge.com

your app would run on any palm os except 5. There might be a version for 5 if Palm decides to license again.

[iebnn]

www.caslsoft.com