Ever wanted to write programs for your PalmPilot?
This page will take you through how to develop a small application written in Java and how to run it on your PalmPilot - yes Java for the PalmPilot!!
I have always wanted to write a few simple programs for my PalmPilot but never got round to it because I don't know C or assembler (The normal method of writing apps for the PalmPilot). I can program in Java and I have recently discovered a 'free' Java Virtual Machine for the PalmPilot by Wabasoft. They also have a 'free' development kit allows you to develop Java applications for your PalmPilot. At the time of writting this there are rumours on the Wabasoft newgroup (news.messena.com - pilot.programmer.waba) that it is going to go the way of Linux (public license). Before everyone gets carried away you should note that the Wabasoft JVM does not implement everything available in Sun's Java specification. But it still is extremely powerful and more than capable of developing applications for your PalmPilot.
The example program that I will implement is shown below, as an applet. It is a simple VAT calculator that works in the UK were VAT is currently 17.5%. You enter the amount, hit the calculate button and you get the amount + VAT (simple and good for reading computer magazines were the prices sometimes do not include VAT!!)
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Nothing startling but it at least shows how easy it is to develop a Java application to run on your Pilot and it will weigh in at about 6K. Note: The calculation, in the above Applet, is not exact and this also shows one limitation of the Wabasoft JVM implementation but more on that (and a solution) later.
The software that I am using (and you will get from the above links) at the time of writing this is version 1.0 Beta 7. This site only takes you through developing on a windows platform but it should be reasonably similar for other platforms. CoPilot is a PalmPilot emulator that runs on your PC and allows you to load and run PalmPilot applications as per the real thing. Good because it allows you to check you programs quickly and without crashing your PalmPilot!! You will need to get a copy of your PalmPilots ROM to use with CoPilot (it's illegal for me to give it away) but there are programs on the Internet for doing this. You can get a Java Development Kit (JDK) from Sun's site - I used JDK1.1.2 that came with Symantecs Visual Cafe..
If you followed the steps above you should hopefully have a working VAT calculator that does 'approximate' VAT calculations running on your PalmPilot and a nice icon for it.
Good luck an let me know how you get on....