NS Basic Programming for Palm OS Reviews

("starred" reviews from Amazon.com)

5 of 5 stars Great, in-depth info on NSBasic., May 2, 2002
Reviewer: Eston Bond (eston@pinetreesoftware.net) from Ann Arbor, MI USA
As a developer for Palm OS devices, I have read just about every book out there on development for the Palm OS platform, I'd recommend this book to anyone just starting out with Palm OS development or experienced developers with VB/C++ experience. From the simple dbOpen() command to advanced techniques, this book will get you through it all. It's also comprehensive; you don't have to know anything about the topic you want to study to learn it quickly and easily. It is no wonder it's approved by NSBasic Corporation. Wonderful and five stars to the author.

5 of 5 stars Outstanding Reference for the NSBasic/Palm developer, July 1, 2002
Reviewer: daorriss (see more about me) from Bonney Lake, WA USA
Dr. Verive's efforts in NSBasic Programming for Palm OS are well deserved of praise. The biggest challenges a technical author has is finding the right audience to write to and then maintaining the interest of that audience. Dr. Verive has done probably the *most* difficult thing a technical author can do: He has written a book for *all* levels of programmer *and* has written it to keep the interest of the reader, regardless of their technical level.

The book is very well organized so that the experienced programmer can quickly learn the features they need to be proficient in NSBasic/Palm. However the book starts by *also* laying down an excellent foundation for the new programmer. Subjects include programming techniques, and instruction on structured programming.

The accompanying CD is a gold mine with lots of demo code and 'template' applications that you can use as the foundation for your own work.

If you're new to NSBasic programming or just new to programming, get this book, you'll have it sitting at all times right next to your NSBasic Language Reference. The combination of the two books you will find invaluable.

4 of 5 stars Start programming your Palm today!, June 30, 2002
Reviewer: pcpocket-pdantic (see more about me) from Highlands Ranch, CO USA
If you've ever thought about programming your PalmOS device, this book and a copy of NSBasic for PalmOS can get you going in no time at all. This book is very well laid out, features a CD-ROM with many of the example programs already typed in, and it is easy to read. My only beef is that it should have a spiral bound binding like the NSBasic manual so you can lay it out flat in front of your PC.

Michael,
Though I haven't read your book from cover to cover as I should, I can almost always find what I'm looking for and when I can't find it, it's only because I don't know what to look for.  The NS Basic corporation has a strong proponent in you.  Thank you.

Tim

The book is amazing, you MUST get it now! :) I had a list of questions that I was soon going to post...a LONG list...the book answered all of them!

Blake-PVBO (Proud Verive Book Owner)

Michael,

Just a quick note of congratulations on writing a great book. As a long-time, self-taught programmer, I highly valued your insights and thoughts on the good, bad and wonky aspects of Palm programming. Your book hit all the right notes and I read it start to finish over the course of 2-3 days.

Great job!

Michael C.

Mike,

So far I absolutely *love* the book. I love the writing style, I love the organization of it... It's absolutely *outstanding*. For example, you talk to the first time programmers in a section dedicated to them and then focus on NSBasic for the rest of the book. I'll probably buy another copy to 'wear out' so I don't wear out the autographed one. The templates, btw, are *great*. The keypad one totally rocks. I can't wait to tinker with the other code bits.

You should be *absolutely proud* of this effort. It's totally top-notch. I'll be writing a *glowing* review on Amazon.com about it.

David O. Jr.

From IPDG3 Book Review (at www.ipdg3.com/bookreviewresults.php?option=bookreview&id=000027):

With things evolving more and more to wireless or mobile devices people need to stay on top of technology. Michael J. Verive has written a book on just that, NS Basic Programming for the Palm OS. For those of you not familiar with NS Basic, it is a Programming package that allows you to write apps for a mobile device. It works a lot like Visual Basic and has a lot of characteristics of both Visual Basic and C++. To learn more about this product visit their site at NS Basic.

This book has 19 chapters with 319 pages packed full of great information. It also comes with a companion CD that includes sample programs, projects, bitmaps, and accessory programs. The book covers information that will allow you to quickly and easily start writing your first program. The first three chapters cover basic concepts of programming and installation of NB Basic. In chapter four we start rolling up our sleeves and getting started with the famous Hello World. Chapters five and six deal with literals, constants, variables, arrays and programming elements in NS Basic. In chapter seven through eight you will get projects and forms, screen graphics, as well as NS Basic Objects. Chapter ten shows you numeric functions that include standard mathematical functions, exponents, powers and logs.

Okay, we are now half way through the book with even more stuff to help you on your way to develop some great apps. In chapters eleven and twelve you will see how to handle strings and date and time functions. No software would be complete without a way to capture data; in chapter thirteen you will learn about database management, including how to create, open, close, delete, and write data to MemoPad for future browsing. Chapter fourteen helps you understand how to create menus for your apps to enable better navigation. Chapter fifteen lays out how to create alerts and message boxes. Here you will see how to use sound and beeps or trapping user actions. In chapter sixteen you will learn about serial input/output (I/O) communication. Open the serial port, set the parameters, send and receive data, and close the serial port. Chapter seventeen talks about extending NS Basic, accessing the Palm OS API and shared Libraries. Special topics are covered in chapter eighteen which includes printing in NS Basic, data encryption, system info and a lot more. Chapter nineteen is all of the appendixes A - D.

I think this book and companion CD is worth every penny. You will not be disappointed with your purchase. Michael J. Verive has done an outstanding job explaining NS Basic from A to Z. I would suggest if you are looking into learning how to write apps for the Palm OS to give this book and NS Basic a look.

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