Desktop computers used to be called "microcomputers." They had 2-MHz processors, 64K to 128K memory, and simple operating systems in which it was easily possible for the programmer to know every system call. When an application misbehaved, one simply took the 24 seconds necessary to reboot the entire unit from floppy.
Microcomputers are still with us, but they fit in the palm of our hand and run perhaps 100x faster than two decades ago. Their architecture is still essentially 64/128, though they have multiple persistent data storage spaces. These storage spaces and also the dynamic storage spaces which represent applications are called "databases" in the 3Com Palm programming model. Palm Database Programming is thus about starting to program the Palm architecture, and, as long as we are overloading the term "database," about programming applications that communicate with desktop databases.
Palm Database Programming, by Eric Giguere, is a very comfortable computer book. It covers all the fundamentals: hardware models, memory models, event models, APIs, and development environments. The CD-ROM content is well integrated and apropos. Giguere unostentatiously and reassuringly displays a wide acquaintance with Palm itself and broad perspective on microcomputing. You are left confident that you're in the hands of not only an expert, but a master.
How could it be otherwise? Giguere has been on my bookshelf since the 1980s, when he wrote the Programmer's Guide to AREXX. Having started to write at age 14 about his Commodore VIC-20, he has honed his skills over the years at teaching novel and entertaining computer architectures to eager and energetic young enthusiasts.
While the first two-thirds of the book is an admirable tour of Palm applications, the focus that emerges in the final portion of the book is palmtop programming with an eye to the coordination data on the palmtop with data on the desktop. To this end, an evaluation version Sybase Adaptive Server Anywhere is included. The choice is hardly coincidental; author Giguere moved to Watcom in 1993 and rode out the acquisitions that eventually rendered him a Sybase employee.
The CD-ROM content is neatly organized and easily navigable. It contains an evaluation version of CodeWarrior for Palm, as well as binaries of the GNU cross-toolchain for Win32 host to Palm target. A rather complete assortment of Palm developer's documentation is included, along with other tools and many links that supplement greatly the value of the print book, so thoroughly does the disc mine and catalog the available resources for us. It's a shame the Palm ROMs, needed for the emulator, couldn't be included with the disc, but they're easy enough to wheedle out of 3Com Palm Computing.
I don't know which I like about this book more -- the content or the author's attitude.
As regards content, I'm enthusiastically into palmtopping, but of course, I chose the Royal DaVinci. ("Of course" because I also chose BSD, OS/2, the Amiga, and voted for Jimmy Carter in 1980.) In conjunction with the machine-readable resources provided, it's hard to imagine a better introduction to the discipline than this book, which safely navigates the fine line between answering the beginner and getting to the point speedily for the experienced programmer.
As regards attitude, you have to hand it to an author who can matter-of-factly state "No programming book today would be complete without both a web site and CD-ROM" and then deliver in spades on all three components of the successful publication.
Palm Database Programming is a must-have, for both the Palm programming enthusiast and also for the editorial cadres who want to know how to produce a straightforward, complete, and utterly satisfactory computer book.
— Electronic Review of Computer Books
