Palm OS Network Programming

Summary

The OSI model provides a template for designing and implementing network applications and network protocol stacks. The application translates user input and other events into network operations, and handles the results. The network application developer develops the application to handle a specific problem—for example, file transfer, electronic mail, or messaging.

Network operations are executed by the network protocol stack. The network protocol stack handles are required for more-or-less reliable end-to-end data transfer between network hosts. The Palm OS provides a network protocol stack. This protocol stack runs as its own task, independent from the applications that use it.

The network application programming interface (API) provides intertask communication between the application and network protocol stack. The Palm networking API, Net Library, is based loosely on the Berkeley Sockets interface, the de facto networking API standard. The Net Library hides the complexity of intertask communications and network access behind an easy-to-use, flexible C API.