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View Full Version : PowerRUN vs. built-in "application" folder

wailly
10-24-2005, 10:49 PM
Saw that there's an updated version of PowerRUN (1.3.1) and it's now LD supported...

But for LD, you can just drop .prc application into LD's "Applications" folder, and it can run from there. (Noted that not all apps may work properly in this way.) So why the redundant PowerRUN apps? Just wondering if there's any advantage of using PowerRUN instead of the built-in way.
Amstel
10-26-2005, 04:51 AM
Very interesting observation. However, the fact of just moving applications yo hard drive's folder has a weak point: database and associated files will remain unless you move them by hand. :)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v86/amstel/palminsidersm.jpg
Michael Quach
10-26-2005, 07:41 AM
Hmmm... what's the point anyways? Doesn't it all just end up on the LD's hard drive?
wailly
10-26-2005, 08:59 AM
Very interesting observation. However, the fact of just moving applications yo hard drive's folder has a weak point: database and associated files will remain unless you move them by hand. :)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v86/amstel/palminsidersm.jpg

Yup, you are right. At first, I thought it works just fine, cause TCPMP works with separate codec files in that 'application' folder. But others (i.e., Novii Remote) does not - as it just pull the app out without other codebase files when run. So the limitation is that it only work fine with single .prc application file.

Turns out that PowerRUN keeps track of all the related files, and pull them along too as the app runs.
wailly
10-26-2005, 09:09 AM
Hmmm... what's the point anyways? Doesn't it all just end up on the LD's hard drive?

The LD hdd is partitioned, so that about 64M of it is system and apps partition. This holds all the PIM info as well as install 3rd party apps. The rest of the hdd space acts more like an external memory space - much like a sd card you use in other Palm models.

With the rest of the Palm series, you can install apps into the external sd card space (usually under the folder 'launcher'). What it does is that when the app is run, it copies itself to internal RAM (or flash) to execute, then erase itself when jobs are done. The problem is that in most of the time, it only pulls the single .prc file to execute - which posed a problem for apps that needs multiple files to run. PowerRUN is useful in that it keeps track of all the related files in the memory card, and pull those too when needed.

The LD treats the hdd memory much like the external memory. So that's why PowerRUN is still quite handy at times.