The Palm OS Emulator is a "hardware emulator". A "hardware emulator" is an application that pretends to be just like a piece of hardware. In this case, the Palm OS Emulator is an application that acts just like the hardware used in the 3Com / Palm Computing family of Palm OS connected organizers (Pilot 1000, Pilot 5000, PalmPilot Personal, PalmPilot Professional, Palm III, etc.). With it, you can run Palm OS applications directly on your Windows or Macintosh personal computers.
The Palm OS Emulator is an application on which to safely test Palm OS software without risking the data on your personal device. Towards this end, the Palm OS Emulator is enhanced beyond a standard device to call attention to unsafe software behavior (be it intentional or accidental). Software which runs fine on the Palm OS Emulator will generally run safely on Palm OS devices. Software that results in warnings or errors from the Palm OS Emulator but seems to run OK on devices almost always has a real problem. Usually users will notice some strange behavior from their device but they won't know what application causes the problem. The Palm OS Emulator makes it clear what is wrong in a safe environment.
The Palm OS Emulator is a great way to verify that software safely operates without risking your personal data. An application which cannot load or handle Gremlins playing with it is likely to cause users problems which range from soft resets to full data loss. It is important for users and developers to avoid software which needs device resets. The Palm OS Emulator has three qualities which makes it a great software tester. It is great because it allows problems to be found without risking a user's data. It is great because it is simple for users and developers to use. And it is great because it makes it clear what's wrong, which is a time saver if you are suspicious of an application and are trying to track a problem down.
The Palm OS Emulator has a number of features for accurate emulation of the Palm Computing hardware platform:
It also has a number of features that extend standard Palm OS behavior in order to detect unsafe application and to help debug them:
The Palm OS Emulator package includes the following files:
|
File |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Emulator.exe (Windows) |
Main Palm OS Emulator program. |
|
Guide.html |
Palm OS Emulator documentation (this file). |
|
Notes.txt |
Change history of the Palm OS Emulator |
|
ROM Transfer.prc |
Palm OS program to send the Palm.ROM file to your desktop |
|
13hewgil.pdf |
Article by Greg Hewgill on the genesis of Copilot. |
|
12rollin.pdf |
Article by Palm Computing on current status and future direction of the Palm OS Emulator. |
|
Debugger.html |
Developer-level document describing the API that can be used by exnternal debuggers to interoperate with the Palm OS Emulator. |
The Palm OS Emulator requires either Windows 95 or Windows NT to run (it is a multithreaded 32-bit program), or a Macintosh with System 7.5 or later. The Palm OS Emulator will not run on Windows 3.1, even with Win32s installed.
Since the Palm OS Emulator emulates the Palm Computing Platform hardware, all components of the hardware must be present. This includes a ROM image file, which is not shiped with the Emulator. There are two ways to get a ROM image:
After you've obtained a ROM image, place it in the same directory as the Emulator, ensure that its name starts with "ROM." or ends with ".ROM" or " ROM", and launch the Emulator. The Emulator will search for and load the ROM file you've saved. You will then be presented with the familiar "Pilot", "PalmPilot", or "Palm III" splash screen, quickly to be replaced by the General preference panel.
The Palm OS Emulator display looks much like a real Palm OS device. If you have used a real Pilot (1000 or 5000), PalmPilot (Personal or Professional), or Palm III, the operation of the Palm OS Emulator will be obvious.
Palm OS Emulator-specific features are available via menu items. If you are using Windows, press the right mouse button anywhere in the Emulator window (for keyboard users, the F10 key will work too). If you are using a Macintosh, you know where to find the menubar.
TBD: menu descriptions
The hardware buttons (on/off, the four application buttons, up, and down) are simulated on the emulator display window. They are activated by clicking on the button image. Holding down the mouse button is the same as holding down the corresponding Palm OS device button.
The buttons are also simulated on the desktop keyboard as follows:
|
Pilot button |
Desktop key |
|---|---|
|
On/off |
Esc |
|
Date Book |
F1 |
|
Address |
F2 |
|
To Do List |
F3 |
|
Memo Pad |
F4 |
|
Up |
Page Up |
|
Down |
Page Down |
An additional keyboard feature is that you can type on your desktop keyboard, and characters you type will be automatically inserted into the Palm OS event queue. This means that you can enter data with your keyboard instead of trying to do Graffiti strokes with your mouse (which is harder than it sounds).
The Palm OS Emulator includes support for emulating the Palm device serial port connection. This is achieved by mapping Palm OS serial port operations to a real communications port on the desktop computer. To perform a HotSync operation, you would connect two serial ports on the back of your machine together with a LapLink (or other null modem) cable. For example, the HotSync application would be communicating on COM1, and the Palm OS Emulator would be communicating on COM2. They would communicate through the null modem cable, and perform a HotSync operation just like a real Palm device would.
If you have just two serial ports and one of them is in use with a serial mouse, you can still HotSync with the Palm OS Emulator. You will first need to disable your mouse and restart Windows, this will allow you to use the serial port. Connect your serial ports together with a null modem cable. Start the Palm OS Emulator, and press F10 to get the menu, then H. This will start a HotSync operation. When it is completed, exit the Palm OS Emulator, reenable your mouse, and restart Windows again.
Tip: The first time you perform a HotSync operation with the Palm OS Emulator, the HotSync application will ask you to select a user name. It's probably best to create a new user account with a different name for the Palm OS Emulator.
Tip: The Palm HotSync application (that runs on the desktop computer) is CPU intensive. This is fine when talking to a real Palm device, since the two devices are not trying to share the same CPU, but causes the Palm OS Emulator to run more slowly and sometimes the HotSync operation fails. A trick to help this is to click on the Palm OS Emulator window after the HotSync process starts; this brings the Palm OS Emulator back to the foreground and lets it use more of the CPU time. The whole process works better when you do this.
The Palm OS Emulator supports loading applications directly into the emulated RAM without going through a HotSync operation. This is simple, fast, and makes the compile-load-test cycle much easier.
When you select a file to load, it will immediately be loaded into the emulated RAM if possible. Any existing application or database with the same identifier will automatically be deleted before the new version is loaded (if you're trying to replace an application that is currently running, the Palm OS will let you know).
One of the main uses of the Palm OS Emulator is to test software before downloading it onto an actual hardware device. This section covers the steps involved in doing that:
If you have a specific idea of what's wrong with an application, simply go to the Launcher, load the application, and try out the suspect functionality. Report any problems and the steps to reproduce them to the software author.
Gremlins is an automated tester. It randomly generates pen and key input to walkthrough all user-interface features. Gremlins essentially plays fair, meaning that it only uses an application as a user could. If Gremlins can crash an application, some user somewhere will too.
As mentioned, Gremlins randomly makes up pen and keyboard input. There are 1000 different gremlins. Each one has it's own, unique sequence of input. Each Gremlin will always repeat the same sequence of input when activated. To repeat a crash, repeat the Gremlin from the same program state. If the program is in a different state, then Gremlins will not repeat. Gremlins will tap on the buttons currently visible will cause a different series of actions.
Gremlins will run and run, abusing an application as well as it can. The recommended time for an application to run is for an application's full lifespan. For an application which creates data, this means until the device is full. For devices with small memory sizes, this is about a million events. For applications which can't fill up the device, fewer Gremlins are normally needed to fully exercise them.
Gremlins recognizes the Palm OS user-interface a little bit to allow it to focus in on user-interface features which exercise application functionality. Gremlins pays much more attention to buttons, lists, text fields and menus than to labels and blank areas. If a program is using a region of the screen for it's own custom control, placing a user-interface gadget over the area will cause Gremlins to focus on that area as well.
The only known thing that Gremlins does which users can't is Gremlins notices user-interface which is located off the edge of the screen. Such user-interface isn't recommend for Palm OS. Instead, user-interface which shouldn't be visible should be set not usable or hidden with the FrmHideObject API call.
The Palm OS Emulator supports an interface that external debuggers can use in order to debug running application. Currently, Metrowerks has a beta version of a PilotPlugin that can be used to develop and debug Palm OS application. To use this plug-in:
From then on, the debugging cycle is exactly the same as if you were debugging on the actual device. You can single-step, set breakpoints, break on exceptions, execute DbgBreak(), etc.