Did You Just Say Hack?
Feb 27 '01
The Bottom Line Newcomers to the Palm platform will be assaulted with a lot of strange new words. Don't panic. Soon you too will be using words like hotsync and digitizer.
Every new activity we try, new location we travel to, and book we read adds new terminology to our personal lexicons. Until we absorb this new terminology, these activities can be very confusing.
Often words are reused - the word "love" means no points in tennis and a warm, fuzzy feeling in a more general context. This can lead to great confusion the first time you encounter known words in a new context.
The Palm platform is no different. Long time users toss out terms like hacks, resets, launcher, and Flash without any thought because these words have been absorbed into their mental dictionaries. If you are new to the Palm, you're probably thinking we're a bunch of wierdos who alternate between breaking into CIA mainframes and walking around in trenchcoats. Never fear, help is here.
Palm Terminology 101
A hack is a small application that uses the Hackmaster application to alter the default behavior of your Palm. They are analagous to control panels on a desktop system. Hacks do things like add a popup clock to your Palm, make it easier to rapidly switch between applications, and enhance the search capabilities of your unit. See my review of HackMaster at http://www.epinions.com/cmd-review-1C33-48D84B1C-3A548929-prod3 for more information on how hacks work.
A launcher is an application that lets you start (launch) other applications. Palm OS comes with a built in launcher accessed when you tap the Applications or Home silkscreen button. There are many replacement launchers available. Two of the more popular replacement launchers are Launcher III, Launch'Em.
A reset restarts your Palm device, analagous to rebooting a desktop machine. There are three types of resets: soft, warm, and hard. A soft reset is a simple restart of the device. A warm reset restarts the OS without any system extensions or hacks activated, similar to rebooting with the shift key held down on a Mac. A hard reset removes all applications and data from RAM and restarts the device. See my epinion on resets at http://www.epinions.com/content_6479842948 for more information on resets.
Flash or Flash ROM or Flash memory is a non-volatile type of memory that will survive after a hard reset. Units that contain Flash ROM store the OS in Flash and generally allow you to add additional files using third party utilities.
The process of synchronizing the information on your Palm with a desktop machine is called a hotsync. To hotsync, you must place your device in a cradle that is connected to the desktop machine and press the hotsync button. You can also hotsync using a cable that connects to the hotsync port at the bottom of the Palm, hotsync via a modem, or hotsync using the IR port on your Palm.
IR or infrared is a protocol used by Palms to communicate to other Palms or to desktop machines that support infrared communications. The process of sending files from one Palm to another over IR is called beaming. Most Palm devices have an IR port at the top or on the side of the unit.
The digitizer is a part of the screen mechanism and OS that determines where you tap on the Palm screen and translates that into coordinates Palm OS can understand. When you start a fresh Palm (either new or after a hard reset) you will be asked to tap on the screen at certain spots before you can proceed further. These taps are used by the digitizer to determine how to map screen taps to internal coordinates. The process of re-callibrating this mapping is called digitizing.
Obviously this are mere sampling of the terminology you will run into while learning to use your Palm. Soon these and other strange words will be a standard part of your vocabulary and will roll off your tongue with ease. Welcome to the wonderful world of Palm.
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