I used to be a pretty good programmer. I just got my wife a Handspring Visor and will be getting myself one shortly. I'm impressed with all the shareware and freeware apps that are available for these devices, but it's obvious to me that if there was a Visual-Basic like programming language for the PalmOS I'd be able to make my own applications.

I'm a college professor, so here's a few of my ideas...

Grade book/attendance calculator. I insist on attendance and being on time. If I could "log-in" students as they arrive, noting the time, then my end-of-semester grade calculations would be simplified immensly. Each project (I teach an architectural design studio) is weighted differently, and if that value was already in the palm gradebook, it too would simplify end-of-semester grade calculation.

Scorepad. My wife and I enjoy Scrabble, Boggle, Yahtzee, and a few other games. I'd like to have an automatic scorepad that you could enter player's names into, the winning score, and each player's score for their turns. The Visor would keep a running total of each score, and play a celebration tune when someone wins.

Mini-CAD perspective generator. The thing my students have the hardest time learning is how to draw a perspective image of their designs. Mathematically, perspective drawing is trivial on a computer. A simple CAD program I could "draw" their floor plans into, then generate any wireframe perspective view from would be a great teaching tool.

Lastly, does anyone know of a printer or plotter interface for the Palm/Visor family? I'd like to see something like the sync cradle that plugged into a USB printer instead of to your computer. Perhaps a simple printer that had a Palm/Visor port right on it. If that's too hard, how about a printer with IR receiving capability. It could receive print jobs from a palm/visor via IR.

Dave

Dave,

Some software is already available for the Visor/Palm that might fit your needs.

Grade book/attendance calculator: A great database program (that's free) is HandyShopper -- it was designed as a shopping list utility, but can easily be used to create your own database needs. There's a great support site for it as well: [Link: egroups.com]

Scorepad: The software I use for game scores is called ScorePad -- download from www.palmgear.com.

There is a utility that will allow you to print from the Memo software -- it too can be downloaded from www.palmgear.com

Thanks, Andy. I've found Scorepad and downloaded it. But it's the wife's PDA so I'll have to wait for her to come home to try it.

You don't know the name of the printing utility, do you? I know there are at least two IRDA printers out there, and I'd like to be able to write my own application and be able to print to one of them via IR.

I'll look into Handyshopper. If it can become my grading and attendance application I'll let it. No sense re-inventing the wheel.

Dave

"No sense re-inventing the wheel".

I take that back. I LOVE solving old problems that have been "solved" before. Sometimes it's my just my unique look at the problem that results in a better solution for me.

It's nice to know what the existing solutions are, though. It really sucks to solve a problem myself, only to discover that someone else already did it... and BETTER, and CHEAPER!

Oh well ;-)

Dave

Try nsBasic. http://www.nsbasic.com
Cheers

I looked at that link, Charles. NSBasic/Palm "may" be just what I need, eventually. They don't yet seem to support IR communication and I can't tell if they support vector drawing on the Visor's 4-bit, 16 gray scale screen. I've emailed them for more information

Thanks.

Dave

Dave,

The IR printing utility I had seen was IRPad. I haven't tried it, but it has gotten good reviews on PalmGear.

OK, now I need to find an IRda Printer. None of my favorite on-line printer sources seem to find anything when I have them search for "inkjet, printer, and Infrared or Irda".

Anyone got a clue? I'd like a small footprint, both color and B/W cartridges installed.

Thanks

Dave

David,

Try this site for palm IR printing info:

[Link: pdasquare.com]

I hope it's helpful

Akil

Oh I forgot here are the printing choices:

InStep Print by
http://www.instepgroup.com/

PalmPrint by [Link: stevenscreek.com.]

IrPrint by
http://www.iscomplete.com/

Cheers
Akil

Thanks for the great links, Akil. I'm learning.

I definitely want to print via the IR port on my Visor. IR enabled printers are hard to find, but I'm looking. If there was a readily available parallel or USB springboard module that could hook right up to a USB or parallel printer, I'd go that route, as there are tons of inexpensive inkjets out there without IRda capability.

Dave

You might also check out AppForge.Com if you want VB on a Palm....

Canon makes the BJC-50, portable printer. It has a built in infrared interface, prints in color, and can be converted into a scanner. I have one, and it works great. The only drawback is you have to load one page at a time. There is supposed to be a sheet feed adapter, but I have never seen it for sale.

Try http://www.appforge.com - its a true VB environment.

Rob