In the interests of full disclosure, the product shown in the above menu is one from my company. But it's good practice to expect quality installers from any company, especially if there's a Windows component. Usually the software is licensed to one user, so the installer should allow selecting the Palm user to install the software for.

About 70% of software programs available for the Palm were written by non-professional developers -- students, freelancers, and programming amateurs. They could be good doctors, talented artists, or well-known scientists, but they are not programmers. They often don't know the software design concepts, the user interface standards, the efficient programming techniques, and the principles of software testing and quality assurance.

Recreational programmers simply don't have the time or technical resources to test their products on all popular devices and under miscellaneous Palm OS versions. Only the professional software company can guarantee the quality, the safety and the compatibility of their applications.

One approach, especially if you're nervous about the products you're about to install, is test any new software on POSE (Palm OS Emulator) or on POSS (Palm OS Simulators) before you upload the program on your device. POSE/POSS is an important desktop application that allows you to emulate the behavior of Palm OS devices, on your desktop. You can see this in Figure C.

FIGURE C

The Palm OS emulator gives you a chance to try out the software being tested in a controlled environment. Click picture for a larger image.

Note that while the image of the handheld is a bit out of date, the emulators emulate current versions of the Palm OS faithfully. You can download POSE and POSS absolutely free from the official Palm OS site at http://www.palmos.com/dev/tools/emulator/ and http://www.palmos.com/dev/tools/simulator/. There are also the instructions how to get the ROM files for certain device with specified version of Palm OS.

Running the program on emulator/simulator is safe. You don't risk losing your real data if the program crashes. Plus, if debug messages are enabled on your POSE, you'll see a program's errors which often cannot be seen on real device. So, the emulator will give you a good insight into the behavior of the software being tested.

If you don't want to download POSE or POSS or if you're uncomfortable setting either tool up, you must at least backup all data from your device before installing any new application on it. Set all the programs on your Palm to make backup and do a HotSync. This will allow you to restore the data if new program causes its damage or even the loss.

To ensure if the program is worth your money, test at least the following criteria:

• No errors or crashes;
• The data input is easy;
• The controls and navigation are easy to understand, easy to use, and fast;
• The backup option presents;
• The help system is clear and really useful;
• All advertised features must be accessible even in demo version;
• The program does exactly what you need.