[ILUG] Linux PDA question

[kevin lyda]

begin rant...

On Mon, Feb 05, 2001 at 11:31:18AM +0000, Liam Bedford wrote:
> But you're talking about running X on the thing... consider
> the QT palmtop environment, which is 2.6M (IIRC) in gz format, for all the
> standard utils..

AUGH!  NO!  jim getty was talking about an x server with an 800k memory
footprint.  don't encourage embedded widget developers.  one of the
only unifying things that the original unix vendors managed was x.
toss the bathwater, but please keep the baby.

here's a nice scenario to contemplate:

    you've entered in all your data on your pda but now you're at your
    desktop and you'd like to call up the data.  so you hook up your
    palmtop to the desktop via usb and run the s/w that came with your
    palmtop.  except that all the s/w does is start the applications
    with DISPLAY set to your desktop.  voila - the apps are exactly the
    same as they are on the palmtop.  you might have some additional
    functionality, but on the whole everything is the same as before.

    and since the palmtop vendors have half the dev work - no need for
    desktop apps as well as the palmtop apps - they can improve the pda
    clients to a greater degree.

now yes, you can get that with a recompile with embedded qt, but the
app runs on your desktop then and not on your palmtop.  you'll need to
config both apps and then there's the whole issue of keeping them in sync
(which is a different task then backing up the data on your palmtop).
and since they're x clients you can just recompile them on your desktop
if you want them on your desktop.

> Again, don't think in terms of X.. Windows CE 2.x was really bad because
> they thought they could fit the Windows interface to _everything_..

yes, but windows and x are different.  x just provides a framework,
windows imposes a slew of policy and rules.

> your Palm doesn't use anything like X, because that kind of environment
> doesn't make sense on a 320x240 screen..

why does x care about screen size?  current x *clients* might have an
issue at that size, but not x itself.

as an added bonus much of the work on slimming down x for a palmtop
has an added bonus of slimming it down on the desktop.  ui work on the
palmtop can easily be reapplied to the desktop and in general developing
to both targets will benefit both of them more then it would if you used
a different solution on each.

end rant...

kevin

-- 
kevin at suberic.net        i...  i have a dream.  and that dream is:
fork()'ed on 37058400    use DIY::Tiler;
meatspace place: work    my($t) = new DIY::Tiler;
                         $t->tile(-room => "en-suite", -style => "stone");