What Hacks Can't Do
The possible uses for hacks are limitless, though there are some things they cannot do. Hacks tend to perform functions which are system-wide only. For instance, a hack can automatically select a word when you double-tap a text field in any program. It's much more difficult to, say, write a hack which only capitalizes text on a single screen of one specific app. Also, hacks can only act on information that that Palm OS knows about. So, one might make a spell checking hack which works on system text fields, but that same hack would not work with a word processor that stores its text internally and uses its own text-handling routines.

How to use Hacks
In order to use hacks, one must first install a system extensions manager. This is a normal application (not a hack itself) which coordinates the activation and configuration of hack programs. The original Hackmaster, although known to have a few bugs and hasn't been updated since 1997, it is still the defacto standard and is commonly in use. Alternatives include X-Master, and our own program TealMaster, which is the newest and arguably most powerful of extensions managers available. While any of these will work, NEVER run more than one extensions manager at a time, as doing so can lead to stunningly stability-free operating conditions (a crash). Also, never delete or upgrade a hack that is currently in use for the same reason.

When running hacks, the extensions manager is the only program which appears in the system launcher. The hacks show themselves and are turned on and off only from inside the extensions manager. Configuration of the hacks is done there as well. Advanced managers such as TealMaster also allow deleting and renaming of hacks and offer other diagnostic and configuration tools.

How Hacks Work
Last issue, we discussed how operating systems like Palm OS allow programs to run. Palm OS provides shared code routines, allowing different apps to peacefully coexist and have similar functionality. It's no coincidence that even apps from different companies tend to display the same fonts, use similar buttons and menus, and allocate memory in a way that doesn't overwrite other programs or their databases. They're able to because they use shared Palm OS routines to perform these tasks, saving their developers from needing to write the routines from scratch.

Palm OS provides a rich set of some 1000 routines for handling memory, graphics, sounds, ports, text, categories, and user input. The "WinDrawChars" routine is an example. Apps run "WinDrawChars" to draw text onto the screen. This routine needs four pieces of information--called parameters--before it can draw. These include the text to draw, the total number of letters to draw, and where on screen to draw the text, expressed as horizontal and vertical coordinates. The screen's coordinates start with (0,0) in the upper left hand corner. Thus, an app can print "Hello" (which has 5 letters) in the upper left hand corner by running the "WinDrawChars" routine, giving it the four parameters ( "Hello", 5, 0, 0 ).

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