OrbWorks Community Forum

by **Pem** on Sat Jan 14, 2006 1:41 am

Hey people, just starting out with programming for the palm and I have a question. Can an application written in PocketC run in the background? I was interested in writing a simple alarm clock, but if PocketC doesn't support multitasking, then as soon as I would go to another application my PocketC application would quit... so making a functioning alarm clock might be a problem. I'm sorry if my question is worded poorly... if you guys don't know what i'm trying to get at, let me know and I'll try to explain it better.

Thanks,
Pem

by **dewey** on Sat Jan 14, 2006 2:34 am

The Palm OS does not support multitasking. It does support alarms natively, but they are not possible through PocketC for technical reasons.

by **Aqua32** on Sat Jan 14, 2006 2:44 am

Palm Cobalt 6.1 does.

Also, he is talking about functionality similar to pTunes where you can run things while listening to music & VersaMail where it will check your email for you on a timed basis.. All very nice on my PalmOS Garnet.

by **Pem** on Sat Jan 14, 2006 3:08 am

Yea, like aqua32 said I'm thinking about the same thing as a program such as pTunes (or RealOne which I use) running in the background while you run other apps.

But since PocketC doesn't support it.. I guess I'll look elsewhere.

Thanks,
Pem

by **exit_head** on Sat Jan 14, 2006 4:19 am

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Aqua32
 Palm Cobalt 6.1 does.

Also, he is talking about functionality similar to pTunes where you can run things while listening to music & VersaMail where it will check your email for you on a timed basis.. All very nice on my PalmOS Garnet.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

PalmOS Cobalt is dead, dead as a door nail. Background apps are very difficult to program using Codewarrior and can very easly crash. so implimenting something like that into PocketC or orbforms would be very difficult (if not imposible)

by **Aqua32** on Sat Jan 14, 2006 7:26 pm

Where did you read that Cobalt is dead? I would like to read some more information on that. They still seem to be touting it on palmsource and searches turn up many hits none of which infer that it is dead!

by **exit_head** on Sun Jan 15, 2006 12:07 am

sorry if my post seem rude, wasnt trying to be. PalmSource doesnt have anyone using it and Palm(One) has stated that they have no desire to use it, so unless Moterola ends up using that version of PalmOS (i doubt it, theyll probubly use the version tapwave left behind) there arnt any Palm Licensees left to use it. Yes it does exist but users like us will never see one.

Nate

PS: i LOVE to be wrong,

what a happy day that would be. OS 6 has some truely sexy features id love to toy around with. but sadly i really dont think i am.

by **Pem** on Sun Jan 15, 2006 2:55 am

Ok since the program can't run in the background (or at least that would be really hard to implement) I have another question. When you shut off the device a PocketC program is running on, does the application terminate? For example if I try to make the alarm clock program, I could set the alarm and then turn off the device without exiting the program. Would that work?

by **Aqua32** on Sun Jan 15, 2006 4:09 pm

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"> sorry if my post seem rude, wasnt trying to be.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I didnt take it as being rude. I was just wanting a URL so I could read for myself what's going on with it :-)

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">When you shut off the device a PocketC program is running on, does the application terminate? For example if I try to make the alarm clock program, I could set the alarm and then turn off the device without exiting the program. Would that work?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Yeah.. Thats just the way PalmOS works. When you shut it off and then turn it back on it remembers exactly where it was. Still kinda crappy though. I was really wanting to make an email application what would check email accounts every hour or so like VersaMail but with more customization (skins, backgrounds, mp3/midi alerts, etc. :-(

)

But you never know, I don't know the average update schedule for OrbWorks software but it seems to be in active development. So you never know! I would want ARM support before anything.

by **Pem** on Mon Jan 16, 2006 6:07 pm

I see... well does anyone know any programming language for the palmOS that could be used for making an alarm clock? It has to be possible... my device came with an alarm clock application. I want to make myself an alarm clock with a couple modifications to suit my needs =D

by **ampca** on Tue Jan 17, 2006 2:37 pm

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Pem
 I see... well does anyone know any programming language for the palmOS that could be used for making an alarm clock?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

gcc/prc-tools http://www.palmos.com/dev/tools/gcc/
It is posible to write a library for PocketC

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"> It has to be possible... my device came with an alarm clock application. I want to make myself an alarm clock with a couple modifications to suit my needs =D
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

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