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I wrote a couple of really simple Mac programs in the early 90's, so I have a basic idea of events and event-based programs. Those were in C, of course.

Most serious Palm development is done in C, there are other environments you can code in, but if you want to really understand (and be able to control) everything you need to write using the Palm APIs.

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What do I need to do to get off the ground with writing a Palm application? I'm assuming there is a standard development environment, libraries, etc.

PODS is the official development environment, based upon Eclipse. I've never used it, because I started using prc-tools when the only other alternative was Codewarrior.

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Does this cost a small fortune? Is there an open-source alternative, with good documentation?

Both PODS and prc-tools are free. prc-tools is open-source, and I think PODS is too, or at least the Eclipse parts are.

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Is there a repository of palm programs I can use as a starting point?

There are all kinds of examples in the developers area of Palmsource, the OS spin-off of Palm Inc. You should join their developer program, it's required to download simulators, something you'll need when you're writing your programs. The simulator is a Palm emulator program for the PC. You can also join Palm Inc.'s developer program and download simulator images for each type of Palm, so you can test your app on different devices without actually having them. Oh, there are also many sample apps included with PODS and the Palm OS SDK's, including full source code for most of the built-in apps for the Palm (Calendar, Address Book, Memo, etc.)

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Are there any must-read books on the subject?

The O'Reilly book on Palm Programming was the one I started out with and it was pretty good. You can get it on Amazon used for $9. So it looks to get really started programming for the Palm it will cost you $9 plus shipping.

Take a look also at the Palm OS Companion, a kind of 'book' about programming for the Palm by Palmsource. I refer to it all the time, and they have links to the API reference in there as well as sections on communications programming (networking, bluetooth, IrDA). Each section has examples and code snippets you can check out.

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I have the same questions for Windows.

Can't help you there.
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Mark Cushman