PocketStudio by Winsoft is an IDE

Integrated development environment

An integrated development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development...

 supporting rapid application development (RAD)

Rapid application development

Rapid application development is a software development methodology that uses minimal planning in favor of rapid prototyping. The "planning" of software developed using RAD is interleaved with writing the software itself...

 for Palm OS

Palm OS

Palm OS is a mobile operating system initially developed by Palm, Inc., for personal digital assistants in 1996. Palm OS is designed for ease of use with a touchscreen-based graphical user interface. It is provided with a suite of basic applications for personal information management...

 and related operating systems like Garnet OS or Access Linux Platform

Access Linux Platform

The Access Linux Platform , once referred to as a "next-generation version of the Palm OS" is an open source-based operating system for mobile devices developed and marketed by Access Co., of Tokyo, Japan. The platform includes execution environments for Java, classic Palm OS, and GTK+-based native...

. In some regard similar to Delphi

Borland Delphi

Embarcadero Delphi is an integrated development environment for console, desktop graphical, web, and mobile applications.Delphi's compilers use its own Object Pascal dialect of Pascal and generate native code for 32- and 64-bit Windows operating systems, as well as 32-bit Mac OS X and iOS...

 and Lazarus

Lazarus (software)

Lazarus is a free cross-platform IDE which provides a Delphi-like development experience for Pascal and Object Pascal developers. It is developed for, and supported by, the Free Pascal compiler. Since early 2008, Lazarus has been available for Microsoft Windows, several Linux distributions,...

, it has a visual form designer, an object inspector and a source code editor

Source code editor

A source code editor is a text editor program designed specifically for editing source code of computer programs by programmers. It may be a standalone application or it may be built into an integrated development environment ....

.

Distinguishing features

PocketStudio's programming language is a subset of Pascal

Pascal (programming language)

Pascal is an influential imperative and procedural programming language, designed in 1968/9 and published in 1970 by Niklaus Wirth as a small and efficient language intended to encourage good programming practices using structured programming and data structuring.A derivative known as Object Pascal...

 that has been adapted to the needs of Palm OS development. The compiler

Compiler

A compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language...

 generates native code targeting the Motorola MC68000 family microprocessor.

For debugging

Debugging

Debugging is a methodical process of finding and reducing the number of bugs, or defects, in a computer program or a piece of electronic hardware, thus making it behave as expected. Debugging tends to be harder when various subsystems are tightly coupled, as changes in one may cause bugs to emerge...

, the Palm OS emulator

Emulator

In computing, an emulator is hardware or software or both that duplicates the functions of a first computer system in a different second computer system, so that the behavior of the second system closely resembles the behavior of the first system...

 POSE

Pose

"Pose" is the first single by Puerto Rico reggaeton artist Daddy Yankee from the movie soundtrack to the motion picture Talento de Barrio, and was released on May 14, 2008, by Machete Music and El Cartel Records. The single was made available through online music stores on August 12, 2008...

 is embedded. As an alternative, the Garnet OS simulator can be used. PocketStudio integrates wireless development including Bluetooth

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...

 technologies. Other features are a project manager, code templates, inline assembler

Assembly language

An assembly language is a low-level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other programmable devices. It implements a symbolic representation of the machine codes and other constants needed to program a given CPU architecture...

 support and code examples.

The IDE runs on Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

 and generates PRC

PRC (Palm OS)

PRC is a container format for code databases in Palm OS, Garnet OS and Access Linux Platform. Its structure is similar to PDB databases. Usually, a PRC file is a flat representation of a Palm OS application that is stored as forked database on the PDA....

 files for being transferred to handhelds via HotSync or for distribution via internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 or storage media.

Supporting third party libraries

Several APIs support development with PocketStudio via special libraries. Examples are:

• ASE.PalmLibrary, a multi-purpose library
• ASTA SkyWire (see below)
• Cephes, a collection of mathematical routines for scientific and engineering applications
• MathLib, shared library of IEEE-754 double math functions
• VoiceIt voice recognition software
• XPrint System Library, a shared library that enables printing support in applications

Applications produced with PocketStudio

• ASTA SkyWire Client for Palm OS, a cross platform wireless toolkit with PocketStudio interface libraries.
• SPINA is a medical cybernetic software package that allows for calculating constant structure parameters of endocrine feedback control systems from hormone levels obtained in vivo. This free software comes with source code in Lazarus
  Lazarus (software)
  Lazarus is a free cross-platform IDE which provides a Delphi-like development experience for Pascal and Object Pascal developers. It is developed for, and supported by, the Free Pascal compiler. Since early 2008, Lazarus has been available for Microsoft Windows, several Linux distributions,...
  
  /FPC
  Free Pascal
  Free Pascal Compiler is a free Pascal and Object Pascal compiler.In addition to its own Object Pascal dialect, Free Pascal supports, to varying degrees, the dialects of several other compilers, including those of Turbo Pascal, Delphi, and some historical Macintosh compilers...
  
  and PocketStudio.
• SITKPalm, a System Information Tool Kit for Palm OS.

External links

• winsoft
• [news://news.winsoft.sk winsoft news server with several groups on PocketStudio]
• PocketStudio developers forum
• Jim Cooper: Introduction to PalmOS Programming