Frequently Asked Questions

General

  1. Why another text editor ?
  2. Why does PalmEd keep asking me for permission to read/write a file ?
  3. Should I uninstall PalmEd before installing a new version ?
  4. Can I copy/paste from/to another application ?

PalmOS

  1. Can PalmEd be installed on a memory card ?
  2. Can PalmEd edit DOC-format files ?
  3. How much memory does PalmEd require on the device ?
  4. PalmEd seems slow to redraw the text selection. Is there any way to improve it ?
  5. I thought PalmEd was free, how come it looks like the IBM Java virtual machine costs 6$ ?
  6. I dont like PalmEd, are they any other free text files editors for Palm ?

Developement

  1. Why not contribute to or branch from an existing project ?
  2. Why didnt you choose SuperWaba ?
  3. Why did you choose J2ME ?
  4. How do you test the application ?

General

General
Why another text editor ?

Most editors for Palm are designed to handle database records in the proprietary DOC format.

The most advanced opensource text file editor seems to be SiEd which has a few drawbacks :

  • it does not provide any real support for monospaced font (and available monospaced fonts are not easy to find)
  • it does not have any horizontal scrollbar
  • it does not provide an option to *not* automatically wrap large lines
  • it does not support the dynamic input area closing (e.g. full screen mode)
Why does PalmEd keep asking me for permission to read/write a file ?

For security reason the Java virtual machine prompts the user the first time a file (or directory) is read or written.

A means exist to bypass this feature by signing an application with a certificate, this is currently under investigation.

Should I uninstall PalmEd before installing a new version ?

No.

Simply overwrite with the new version.

Can I copy/paste from/to another application ?

No.

The copy/paste buffer is internal to PalmEd, due to J2ME restrictions it cannot be shared with the device clipboard.

PalmOS

PalmOS
Can PalmEd be installed on a memory card ?

Yes.

Can PalmEd edit DOC-format files ?

No.

Due to J2ME security restrictions it might never be supported, this is still under investigation.

How much memory does PalmEd require on the device ?

Basically PalmEd itself takes less than 200K.

However the Java virtual machine requires 3.6M, which seems quite a lot but we believe that for high-end devices memory is not really such a problem anymore.

Moreover as PalmEd caches opened buffers in internal memory and keeps them from one run to another, the size reported by the device concerning the application can increase significantly.

PalmEd seems slow to redraw the text selection. Is there any way to improve it ?

Go to the IBM Java VM preferences panel in the Prefs (System category) and check that for PalmEd the Use Double buffering option is enabled.

Otherwise PalmEd emulates a double-buffer internally, which is not as fast.

I thought PalmEd was free, how come it looks like the IBM Java virtual machine costs 6$ ?

PalmEd is free software however depending on your device IBM may require you to purchase a license for the VM which costs 5.99$.

Although we really regret this as it will cut down our user base, we cannot really do anything more than hope that IBM will remove this limitation in the future.

Please note that the virtual machine is free for users of Treo 650, Tungsten T5 or Zire 72.

You can find more information on the PalmOne web site.

I dont like PalmEd, are they any other free text files editors for Palm ?

Yes.

You can use on from the following (non exhaustive) list :

  • SiEd : text editor for DOC and VFS files on Palm
  • TexT : text editor for DOC and VFS files on Palm
  • Zdocj : text editor for DOC files on Palm

Developement

Developement
Why not contribute to or branch from an existing project ?

Mainly because they are all written in C on top of the PalmOS C SDK with all the following disavantages :

  • lack of portability to other platforms
  • very low-level APIs (for string manipulation or memory allocation for instance)
  • no text box component with an horizontal scrolling
  • no horizontal scrollbar component
  • no support for monospaced fonts

References :

Why didnt you choose SuperWaba ?

Due to the following reasons :

  • the GPL license is incompatible with our BSD license
  • no text box component with an horizontal scrolling
  • seems a bit slow for graphic operations
  • poor coding engineering practices
  • no support for monospaced fonts
  • no support for the dynamic input area

References :

Why did you choose J2ME ?

Also J2ME does not provide as much functionnalities as of course the Palm C SDK and even as SuperWaba we decided to adopt it because :

  • it is a standard and a lot of examples and tutorials exist
  • testing revealed IBM J9 was far faster than SuperWaba for bitmap rendering
  • developement methods are more efficient in java (unit testing, developement environnements, etc..)

References :

How do you test the application ?

For integration testing we use the Palm OS Garnet 5.4 Simulator (with the Palm OS Garnet 5.x Simulator HostFS to enable VFS support) and a Tungsten T5 device.