Every operating system has things people don't like about it. Those things usually vary person by person - one person can love the way sound is handled while another really hates it. On desktop systems, control panels, system extensions, service, and other little applications can be used to customize many system features. HackMaster provides this ability on the Palm.

Just like the control panel interface, HackMaster itself doesn't do much. Rather, it provides a runtime environment for other utilities to bypass certain system behaviors. Just like you need a specific clock control panel to change the appearance of the clock on the menubar of a Mac, you need a specific hack to make a clock launch on top of another application (ChronoHack, to be specific). There are many hacks available that customize everything from the size of the clipboard to the way applications are launched to the fonts used by the system to the processor speed used. This review isn't a review of available hacks, so I am not going to spend any real time pointing out specific hacks or listing my favorite hacks or the hacks I think no one should be without. If you are looking for hacks, go to PalmGear at http://www.palmgear.com.

From the end user's perspective, HackMaster is basically a container for these hacks. It provides a simple UI for turning hacks on and off, and for setting preferences for hacks. It maintains a list of all active hacks and makes sure they are used whenever they should be used. It also offers to restart the previously active hacks whenever you reset your Palm. It ensures that hacks interact with each other as little as possible. You can safely turn hacks on and off in any order without fear of interdependencies.

One key thing to understand is that there is a difference between an installed hack and an active hack. An installed hack is merely a hack that is present on your Palm. However, until you launch HackMaster and activate it by tapping on the checkbox to its left, the hack has no effect on your system. When the hack is active it acts as an integrated part of the system. You should never delete an active hack from the system. That is equivalent to deleting a part of the OS while it is in use and will most likely cause a very nasty crash. Instead, deactivate the hack then delete it. If you want to ensure that you never delete an active hack and avoid all related crashes, you can use HackDelete Hack which prevents you from deleting any active hacks.

For the curious, I'll go into a little more depth about how HackMaster actually works. Every time an event occurs, be it a tap, pen stroke, or button press, HackMaster intercepts the action and determines if the event is supposed to trigger any of the active hacks. If none of the hacks perform any action on that event, HackMaster allows the action to pass through for standard system processing. However, if one of the active hacks is triggered by the event, HackMaster passes it the information pertaining to the event for processing, bypassing the normal system processing.

For example, Fitaly is a software keyboard that uses a hack to trap requests for the standard system keyboard and launch Fitaly instead. Let's suppose Fitaly and FitalyHack are installed and you tap on the keyboard dot in the graffiti area. HackMaster goes through its list of events to intercept and realizes that FitalyHack wants to process that tap. Instead of allowing the tap to pass to the system which would launch the default keyboard, HackMaster passes the tap information to FitalyHack which then launches the Fitaly keyboard.

I've heard some people express concern that HackMaster crashes their system or causes hard resets. No application is perfect and I am not going to state that HackMaster is, but many of those crashes are probably caused by either trying to delete an active hack or by a specific hack that isn't well behaved. HackMaster is an interface and a runtime environment for third-party addins. HackMaster has no control over the quality or stability of the hacks you install. There are hacks that do not play nicely with certain other applications. There are hacks that crash or do not do exactly what they claim to do. This is not a problem with HackMaster but rather with those individual hacks. I have never had any problems with HackMaster itself, nor has anyone that I know. You should always read the documentation for any new hack you try - many list known incompatibilities. If possible, try them on the emulator. Definitely back up all of your data first. Of course, all of these suggestions are good suggestions when trying new software in general, but they are particularly important for hacks since hacks tend to interact with your system at a lower level and have more potential for causing crashes.

HackMaster allows you to create the Palm environment you like. You can remove some behavior you dislike or add a lot of additional functionality controlling almost any aspect of the system. I highly recommend HackMaster and the use of hacks to any Palm owner.



Recommended: Yes