AppForge, Inc., a leading provider of application development solutions for handheld and mobile devices, announced today at PalmSource(TM) the release of AppForge, the first Visual Basic (VB) development environment for the Palm OS(R) platform.
AppForge is a technology that enables VB Programmers to create sophisticated applications for the Palm Powered(TM) handheld market.
The introduction of the AppForge development environment brings more than 6 million VB developers worldwide into the handheld computer space. No other product has ever enabled such a large base of programmers to begin developing applications for a new market overnight.
Fully integrated into Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0, AppForge gives VB developers for the first time the ability to create applications for the Palm OS platform without having to learn a new or proprietary language. Previously, developers had to use programming languages such as C++ or Java and it often took days or weeks to develop applications. Now, the same applications can be developed in hours.
"That AppForge is empowering the Visual Basic developers of the world to create applications for Palm Powered handhelds is great news for users," said Jerry Jalaba, vice president, Enterprise, at Palm, Inc. "The bottom line is that users can expect many more new applications to choose from."
Using AppForge, applications are compiled as Windows executable files, allowing the developer to debug and execute the application on their desktop before synchronizing the application to their Palm Powered device. Consequently, the Palm OS application can then be e-mailed to others or copied to a network drive, allowing the application to be run and tested on desktop and notebook computers. AppForge supports handheld devices with as little as 2MB of memory and runs on Palm OS 3.1 and later.
"AppForge is creating new possibilities in handheld and mobile applications for VB developers," said Doug Armstrong, founder and CEO of AppForge, Inc. "For the first time, we're opening the popular Palm OS platform to Windows developers."
Response from the recently closed beta testing program was so great that AppForge decided to cap the number of participants at 1,000, more than four times the original number allowed in the program.
"I must admit, there is nothing quite like the feeling of seeing your first application run in such little time, and exactly like you would expect it to go," commented one beta tester.
AppForge costs $695, the Booster runtime is free, and both are available on the company's web site. For more information or to purchase AppForge, visit www.appforge.com.
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