> I am a new member on this list, I joined because I have been thinking
> about buying the geos SDK - it's not too expensive.
It is very reasonable, especially if you can find the required BC++ 3.5
or above used. I got someone to donate to me on the condition that I
release at least one freeware program-- still working on it (I just went
and got a job, oops). You don't need the second PC, although it REALLY
helps.
> But learning another API takes time, and I wonder if geos is destined
> to be a major player.
Sure does. Geos's API is facinating-- one of the nicest I've worked
with, but SO different from others that it's hard to translate. Helmar
accused its memory management of being archaic-- no, it's much more
advanced than most PC operating systems. What it is is different!
> Looks like the Pilot is doing well, while geos is found on the
> zoomer, omnigo and some other devices - none of them seem to be major
> players (in my opinion).
> Anyone have ideas on this?
Put it this way-- the Pilot OS is found on the Pilot. The Geos OS is
found on the Zoomer, Omnigo, Sharp, Nokia smartphone, Brother&Canon
wordprocessors, and desktop. More platforms are coming-- RISC-based
systems are due out at the end of this year, and a '386 PDA is due from
Hyundai who knows when. The Omnigo has been pretty successful as well--
it's problem was that its PC connectivity was dumb (guess who provided
that? Palm!), but tis sals and user satisfaction have been excellent.
> Also, coming from Windows SDK programming, how difficult is it to
> write geos apps?
Well, of course, the language is different. You just have to learn it.
Secondly, there are no visual development languages or tools-- you have
to put everything together yourself.
Finally, you seldom need any; the Geos object system handles most of the
things you need most of the time wihtout any additional code. You want
to declare a primary window, with a File menu and all the normal window
management stuff? Okay:
@object GenPrimaryClass MyWindow =
{
GI_vismoniker = "My Window";
};
There you go. The object system handles everything else for you-- and
you can even do some pretty complicated object placement by using hints
(which would go right after the vismoniker there, and might tell the
object to take up all the available space, or center any objects put in
it, or who knows what).
In summary: the system handles what Windows usually needs a seperate
program to take care of. (So much so that Geos programs-- unlike Windows
programs-- don't even have a main loop, but are event-driven, and thus
don't need to take any more CPU time than they need.)
> Steve Harris.
- -Billy
GeoPaladin (have GNU will travel)