Tristan Mumford wrote:
But it has happened, and I'm glad. My only wish for it though is VFS support. There are two reasons for this. Converting is a bit hard for me on a non-ms system (even a palm app to do it would be okay) I also try to keep my Palm's RAM as empty as possible. That's because I'm an evil person that uses programs that need massive amounts of heap etc. We're talking at least 10MB. I still think it's a great idea though. I love using emulators on my Palm.
#1 requested feature. I just ran out of energy to keep development up. That, and I never got the build environment completely moved over from Linux to my Powerbook. I just keep all the DSK.PDB's on my memory card and move only the ones I want into main memory. I only keep the ones I use a lot (like HBCC :-) ) installed all the time. I find I can play some of the games better on Appalm than I can real hardware. I was actually able to finish Karateka. :-)
And the fact that PalmOS is a cobbled together piece of crap.The 68k versions did what they were required to do quite well. One of the reasons I stuck with Palm was the way the OS works. I like the concept of a RAM filing system. I also like the instant start/returning to apps. I recall reading something about the older palmOSes multitasking ability. Something about the company that developed the OS for palm putting in as a part of the contract that the multitasking APIs aren't exposed. It seemed a bit odd to me. Either it was shamefully bad or they had plans to exclusively release backgroundable apps or something like that. However I fail to understand the logic behind OS5. I mean what's the point of developing a powerful handheld and essentially using an emulator for it's OS? Adding support for 68k based palm apps was a good idea no matter what, but it shouldn't have been an almost impossible to work with default. One of the many reasons i kind of wish that I could get linux working on my palm, and that it was mature enough for everyday use.
Well said. Indeed, the 68k PalmPilots were perfectly suited to the OS. Interestingly enough, the low level real-time executive used in the PalmPilot, AMX, was used in my first project I wrote for Compaq: the original RAID controller that shipped with the SystemPro (anyone remember that?). It was very nice (AMX, not the controller). Small, fast, and bug free. This was back in '89 running on a 186 @ 16MHz. I'm sure AMX has evolved quite a bit since then, but I thought very highly of the product. It was pretty low-level, and processes had to be compiled in, but still would have been nice to get some access to it.
OS5 is just a bunch of band-aids. Kind of like Pre-OSX Mac OS. The build environment hasn't been updated in years. Really too bad. I like the ARM processor. It shouldn't have to be difficult to take advantage of it. Something as basic as writing a native app should have been possible since day one. I guess that explains why they have been trying to get purchased. Nobody wants 10 year old technology, though.
Trying to bring this thread back around, I would very much like to see a hobby computer with Apple II peripherals and an ARM CPU. A fast, basic 3D accelerator and you have an excellent platform for hobbyists to play with. A stripped down Linux kernel and an interactive, programmable shell (Python?) with 2D and 3D graphics capabilities would be my choice. X should be an option. I like the idea of a single task oriented interface for playing around. Give me OSX for real work.
Dave...