dsandler.org

It looks like the open-sourced Binder (the fancy multithreading component framework underneath Palm OS 6, which began its life as BeIA 2.0 during the final months of Be, Inc.) has finally been officially released:

Contributing to the Open Source Community - ACCESS and PalmSource have contributed Open Binder, a component object framework, similar in general concept to DCOM and CORBA, but better scaled for use on small devices. Open Binder provides a unique inter-process communication (IPC) paradigm implemented as a kernel-loadable driver, and incorporates a broad range of programmatic utility classes and frameworks. PalmSource and ACCESS have released the Binder driver and its associated frameworks to the open source community. For more information, see www.openbinder.org.

Elsewhere: Jason (pretty much the mastermind behind the open-source effort).

Update: Eugenia has posted what I think will prove the definitive reportage of this release: OpenBinder introduction & interview with Dianne Hackborn.

Update 2: Slashdot covers the general PalmOS-Linux announcement. Nobody seems to have noticed the Binder part (except Eugenia); who can blame them, given the way it was buried in the press release?

Update 3: Wow, look at that cluttered architectural block diagram. A lot of unpleasant things there, like GTK and GStreamer (when we had a perfectly awesome rendering engine and media framework already built—that is, completed—for Binder). And hey, check it out, the nebulously-named “messaging framework” lives on! I swear, that thing will never be finished until someone decides to actually throw a team at it (instead of a pale blue rectangle on a diagram and a checkbox on a features list).

(The girls, too.)

There’s still a lot to relate, but it turns out the rest of the world didn’t stop turning while Houston ran and hid, so I’ve got a lot to catch up on first. Exhibit A:

Palm Inc. is teaming up with Microsoft Corp. to launch a Windows-based version of the Treo smart phone, marking the first time the handheld computer pioneer will sell a device based on its former rival’s software. […]

“In terms of the level of importance, this would be — in this space — the same thing as Apple announcing they were going to be using Intel processors,” Enderle said.

Correction: This would be the same thing as Apple announcing they would start shipping Macs running Windows instead of the Mac OS. (Hey, PalmSource: what’s that on the wall?)

Big news about my old employer:

From Reuters:

TOKYO, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Japanese software developer Access Co. said on Friday it would make U.S. software developer PalmSource Inc. wholly owned in a 34.4 billion yen ($311.3 million) cash deal to strengthen its development of software for handheld devices.

Access will pay cash to shareholders of PalmSource, which will be later absorbed by Access’ U.S. unit Apollo Merger Sub Inc., Access said in a statement.

“We expect the acquisition of PalmSource to help strengthen our capability to develop software for handheld devices,” Access said.

PalmSource makes the “Palm” operating system software used in devices made by PalmOne and other manufacturers.

The company, however, has been struggling to win new licensees for its software in the face of increased competition from Microsoft Corp. and announced in June restructuring including a 16 percent cut in its workforce. ($1=110.49 yen)

Links: Press release, PalmInfocenter.

August 2002 - Just like how old people start sleeping in separate beds, PalmSource and Palm Solutions move to separate campuses.

(Even the official website can’t quite get it straight)

Hey, actual pictures of a Palm OS Cobalt device. (There’s my status bar! Whee!) [More coverage: PalmInfocenter]

PalmSource Developer News #18 (Oct, 2004): Condensed GcFonts—Just Add Water, by Dan Sandler (Applications Software).

(By the time it was published, I had already left PalmSource to begin graduate school, so I missed it when it first came out. Better late than never, I guess.)

PalmInfocenter has their first batch of Cobalt screenshots, taken from the audience of Dave Nagel’s keynote address at the 2004 PalmSource Developer Conference.