Scott Hanselman

GlucoPilot for the Palm - Open Sourced?

January 30, 2006 Comment on this post [6] Posted in DasBlog | Diabetes
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NewColorSmallYears ago I wrote a "C" application for the original Palm called GlucoPilot that I later updated to color Palms. It was the first Diabetes Management Application for a PalmPilot and gained a following. I sold the product to Healthetech who continued to sell and support it for a few years longer. Then, Healthetech got out of the diabetes business and into the diet-related market among other things.

There are literally tens of thousands (perhaps more) of GlucoPilot users in four languages. I've approached Healthetech with the idea of making a GlucoPilot Community Edition that would be Open Source, but with a commercial friendly license that would allow Healthetech to take the changes and potentially commercialize GlucoPilot later. This is similar to the approach newtelligence took with DasBlog.

Right now, GlucoPilot isn't available to download, and doesn't work on Palm OS 5 systems. Palm OS 5 was the one where the CPU totally changed and I never got a copy of Metroworks CodeWarrior as well as the new APIs. I'd like to update GlucoPilot to support not only the newer Palm systems like Treo's but also high-res displays.

However, with my current commitments I couldn't head the technical aspects of this project - I could only act as a product manager. If you, or someone you know, is an experienced Palm programmer and, hopefully, a diabetic, and are interested in truly committing to this product and it's community, please contact me. Please spread the word.

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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January 31, 2006 17:34
Hi- you don't need CodeWarrior to develop for Palm OS 5.

I suppose the current app is developed with gcc/prc-tools?

The app should work as is on Palm OS 5 - that is, unless you broke the rules (such as writing to internal OS structures).

Could you describe the app's behavior on OS 5? Does it start? Does it crash sometimes, etc?

If you want to use the new extensions (hi res, etc) you just need to get an up-to-date SDK and I think you can continue using gcc.
February 01, 2006 11:22
Jack, this app was written in September of 1998 using CodeWarrior. It was written before there was a Get/PutPixel method in the PalmAPI, so yes, it talks directly to the hardware. It crashes on startup when it attempts to access a UI Table's internal data structure. If it does run, it crashes when it draws the charts.

It might be easy for a Palm programmer to port this, but not for me, anymore. You game?
February 02, 2006 0:23
I don't have Code Warrior either, so I would convert it to gcc/prc-tools. CW for Palm appears to be at end of life anyway and the new environment is sort of gcc-based.
If this is ok with you and if you can send me a zip with the sources I can take a look at it. Tell me if it's ok & I will send you my email address.
February 02, 2006 0:42
Jack, please do send me your email.
February 04, 2006 13:48
Scott,
I sent you a message a few days ago & got no reply yet.
Did you get it?

February 06, 2006 21:29
I did, Jack, but I'm still looking for the source, it's from 1998.

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.