GO Corporation – PenPoint Development Tools
GO Corporation PenPoint Development Tools, which describes the PenPoint development environment and the tools that used to develop, test, and debug PenPoint applications.
The first part introduces PenPoint application development, describes the organization of the PenPoint SDK documentation set, and instructs how to run PenPoint on a 80386/486 PC. The second part describes how to debug PenPoint programs, and includes a tutorial on the PenPoint source-level debugger.
The third part covers the tools provided with the PenPoint SDK, including file system tools, a bitmap editor, and a font editor.
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Artifact Details
GO Corporation
United States
English
April, 1992
Perfect bound softcover book.
Table of Contents
- Part 1 / Getting Started
- Part 2 / Debugging PenPoint Applications
- Part 3 / Tools
8.5" x 10.75" x 0.75" (301 pages)
0-201-60861-8
QX3DVTEWPO
April, 1992
Acquired from developer
2026-06-06
2
Organizations
History
GO Corporation's PenPoint Development Tools, dated April 1992, is a volume in GO's Technical Library that describes the PenPoint development environment and the tools used to develop, test, and debug PenPoint applications.1 Its first part introduces PenPoint application development, describes the organization of the PenPoint SDK documentation set, and explains how to run PenPoint on an 80386/486 PC; the second part covers debugging PenPoint programs and includes a tutorial on the PenPoint source-level debugger.1
The software development kit that this manual documents had its origins in the developer release of PenPoint, which GO Corp. announced on January 22, 1991 for independent software vendors and value-added resellers and which ran on GO's prototype pen hardware.2 By October 1991, more than 500 individuals and organizations had begun PenPoint development, and GO introduced a phased Beta Program leading toward the production release of PenPoint 1.0 — then planned for the first quarter of 1992 — together with an Authorized Education Center program to deliver PenPoint development training.3
On April 16, 1992, GO announced the commercial release of PenPoint and began shipping the PenPoint Software Development Kit, which bundled an executable copy of the operating system together with the tools and documentation developers needed to become productive.4 To build PenPoint applications a developer needed only the SDK, an 80386- or 80486-compatible PC running DOS, and a digitizer tablet to emulate a pen computer, with code compiled using the WATCOM C/386 32-bit C compiler; the kit was distributed by GO Corporation, Merisel, and Ingram/Micro D beginning that month.4 GO further confirmed that development could be carried out on either a pen computer or a conventional desktop PC, and authorized partners including PenMagic Software, Pensoft, and Slate to distribute the SDK alongside their own development tools.5
Within the GO Technical Library, PenPoint Development Tools sat alongside companion volumes including the PenPoint Application Writing Guide, the PenPoint User Interface Design Reference, the two-volume PenPoint Architectural Reference, the two-volume PenPoint API Reference, and the PenPoint SDK Reference.1
AI generated using primary sources referenced in the footnotes
Footnotes
- GO Corporation, PenPoint Development Tools (image scan), April 1992
- GO Corporation, GO Announces PenPoint Operating System for Mobile Pen-Based Computing, January 22, 1991
- GO Corporation, GO Expands Licensing, Education and Beta Programs to Accelerate Mobile Computer Market Development, October 21, 1991
- GO Corporation, GO Corp. Announces Availability of PenPoint, April 16, 1992
- GO Corporation, GO Announces Industry-Wide Support for PenPoint, April 16, 1992
Oral History
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