RE: ChitDrawer source.

Hi Andrew -

> I'm considering getting a Palm PC in the near future. Do you know what
> software development tools are available for it?

I should probably be more clear: I have a Windows CE-based Palm PC
("Palm-sized PC" is probably the official term), not a Palm Organizer
(which
used to be called a Palm Pilot - are they still?).  I'm totally in love
with
my Casio.  I use it constantly; never leave home without it.  (And it
currently has more games on it than my desktop! <g>)  My wife has one as
well.  She just left for a conference in Atlanta; we were able transfer
her
flight information from her PPC to mine with no effort at all.	Also, if
she's using the desktop, I can still get a lot of work done just on the
Palm
PC.  The Game Boy emulator is nice as well.. <g>

For WinCE development, you need a Windows CE Toolkit from Microsoft. 
This
is a plug-in for either Visual C++, Visual J++, or Visual Basic. 
Important
note:  if you have version 6 of the Visual Studio tool, you need version
6
of the WinCE toolkit!	It includes the cross-compiler (for creating
native
binaries).  Note that this is distinct from the WinCE SDK's, which can
be
downloaded for free.  In addition to the toolkit, you need the SDK for
the
platform you want to develop for: Palm PC, Handheld PC, or Handheld PC
Pro
(plus some more obscure platforms).

There are some alternatives, none of which are completely satisfactory. 
You
can use PocketC which is a shareware C compiler, but it does not create
native executables (and so are a little difficult for the end-user to
get
running - but it's fine for most of us).  Though useful, not an ideal
solution.  Waba (Java as pronounced in Spanish) is a Java-like language
that
runs on WinCE.	The advantage here is that Waba programs can be run as
Java
programs in a web browser (but not vice-versa) using a special wrapper
class.	The trouble with this is that Waba is mind-numbingly slow.  I've
also heard good things about NSBasic (including that you can develop
WinCE
software on the WinCE device rather than the desktop, which would be
handy),
but I don't know much about it.  I would have tried it, but it's $99 and
is
presumably not as powerful as C++ (but who knows?).  I picked up the
WinCE
toolkit cheap on eBay, so it was definitely the better option.

I went the WinCE toolkit route after having tried PocketC and Waba.
Development is pretty easy under the toolkit, really. If you can already
program for Windows, it's definitely the way to go.  I've heard PalmOS
(the
other organizer platform) has some decent development tools as well;
hopefully someone else here can help you with that.

TTYL..
Keith
---------------------------
University of Maryland Astronomy
http://www.ExodusProject.com