porting PalmOS apps?

[Paul Bohme]

Joe Pfeiffer wrote:
> Is anyone looking into the difficulty of porting old PalmOS
> applications to OpenMoko?  There are a few of them that I'd really
> hate to lose (the Pilot-DB flat-file database and the Timing multiple
> timer are two I use a lot, and haven't seen any equivalent Linux
> programs for).
>
> Hmm, if not, that might give me something to look into...  timing
> couldn't be a direct port since the source isn't open (and besides,
> it's got some interface decisions I'd want to change), but pilot-db is
> GPL.
>   

Unfortunately PalmOS apps don't 'port' - the API is so bad that the only 
solution is to rewrite the application.  Unless there are some internal 
algorithms that are totally system independent (and with the above named 
apps I don't see much if any room for this) there is little if any code 
that can be harvested for a port to a new platform.

I worked on the platform from the late 1.x days into the 3.x, and 
because I'm a packrat still have several (including my first unit - a 
USRobotics PalmPilot 5000) collecting dust.

Been there, done that.  Ran away screaming. ;-)

I think I remember the pilot-db app, if you look around there may be 
something that fits the same shoes - perhaps something SQLite based?

  -P