new Palms, new problems, new frustrations for users/developers/everone

Thanks, Brian,
I didn't take gmerin's post as trolling - I took it more as frustration over the situation. That often leads to words and tones one wouldn't use face-to-face or in a written letter. I've sent a few nastygrams that I later regretted... (now I change the email address to something like "foo@bar.comXXXXXXXXXXX" just in case I hit 'send' too quickly... :)

The problems and frustration in Palm-land are unfortunately getting worse. The DIA incompatibilies, the rocker keys, the shadow databases, changes on the distribution sites (the worst being "we'll sell your software, but you can' mention your own company web site or email address in the software or documentation" !!) - these and other difficulties are driving developers and users nuts. The latest Datebk5 email update was - for Steuart - dripping with vitriol. Messages on the developer boards are far worse. When the die-hard long-time developers are so frustrated and angry, well, there's some kind of problem...

I'm not pronouncing PalmOne, PalmSource, or the Palm OS dead - far from it, I still love it and prefer developing for Palm than anything else.

Alas, I suspect it's like world peace, medical care, the environment, the economy, raising children, and most other complex issues - there's no simple answer. Hopefully though, PalmSource and the Palm OEMs will work toward reducing the difficulties.

In the meantime, we'll all do the best we can.

There's probably not much that end-users can do other than letting PalmSource, PalmOne, and other manufacturers know how you feel about incompatibilities between machines. Innovation and progress are good things, but when it's uncoordinated and disjointed it's a mess for everyone.

As Yoda said: "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to the Dark Side."

Frustration leads to anger, and so to the Dark Side too...

- Al -