PalmSource today announced the Palm OS Developer Suite, a new set of tools for application developers.

According to the company, the new tools are designed to provide software developers with an easier and faster path toward creating Palm OS applications for all current releases of the Palm OS and Palm OS 6.

The Palm OS Developer Suite includes an open-source Integrated Development Environment (IDE) based on Eclipse. Originally developed by IBM, Eclipse is a IDE with several hundred plug-in tools that support many major software development languages including C, C++, Java, and COBOL. The introduction of the Palm OS Developer Suite is for developers targeting support for both 68K and ARM-native Palm OS applications.

PalmSource has joined Eclipse as a founding Add-In Provider member, which allows the company to participate in setting the direction and strategy of Eclipse components. PalmSource will also participate in Eclipse Open Source projects that are implementing various components, including the Eclipse Platform, C/C++ Development Tools, and the Java Development Tools.

The company said it will provide technical details, and a preview version of the Palm OS Developer Suite at the PalmSource Developer Conference in San Jose, California next week.