Programming Visual Basic for the Palm OS

Component Code Generation

We can now use the PIDL compiler to generate C++ skeleton module and component code from the MDX and IDX files we created previously. From the skeleton code, we can compile either a Windows DLL, using Visual C++, or a PRC file, using Metrowerks’ CodeWarrior.

With a DLL, you can write a simple Visual C++ driver program to test on Windows before deploying it to the Palm as a PRC file. More importantly, you can incorporate your component into an AppForge Visual Basic application and test it on Windows before deploying the component and the application to the Palm. Piedmont’s dual DLL/PRC nature is what makes it such a powerful SDK.

In this section, we use the PIDL compiler to generate the skeleton code for the TagParse component and compile it as a Windows DLL. Before getting started, configure Visual C++ so it can find the various files associated with the Piedmont SDK. From the Visual C++ main menu, select Tools → Options to bring up the Options dialog. Click on the Directories tab. Assuming the Piedmont SDK is installed in C:\Program Files\AppForge\SDK, add the directories shown in Table 9-7.

Table 9-7. Visual C++ Piedmont SDK directories

File type	Directories
Include files	C:\Program Files\AppForge\SDK\include
	C:\Program Files\AppForge\SDK\include\Win32
Library files	C:\Program Files\ AppForge \SDK\lib\Win32\MSVC60
Executable files	C:\ Program Files \ AppForge \SDK\bin

Next, create a Win32 DLL project called ParseServer in the ParseServer ...