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PDA Giant Sharp Promises Linux-Running PDAs
ECaldwell writes: "It looks as though Sharp is stepping up to the PDA plate with a unit (the Zaurus) that uses Linux instead of Palm, CE or a proprietary OS. These units are designed to be direct competitors with Palms, Handspring and other PDA's. The timing for a release of is planned for around Christmas.
The problems for Palm and CE devices so far is the limit of easy to use programming languages which makes it difficult for a novice to write even an basic progam (I don't know C or C++). The good news here is, with Linux loaded on a Zarus we should be able to use any of the great languages that Linux already supports to flood that market with good software." (Read on for more).
Lynuhx indicates a Japanese-language page where you can see a cute mockup of this thing, and denisbergeron points to these two links on yahoo for a bit more: [(1) and (2)] Sharp's products and reputation seem to have languished in the U.S., so this planned offensive will be interesting -- especially if by Christmas, "Linux PDAs" has become a crowded field.
That's ridiculous.
For WindowsCE you have Visual Basic, Waba, KVM. For Palm, you have AppForge, Satellite Forms Pro, Waba, KVM, PQAs, etc.
Without question, the MAIN reason I bought my current PDA (Handspring Visor, PalmOS) is beacuse of the ease of use of Graffiti.
Is there an open source equivalent? Or even a Linux equivalent that will run on these vaporous Linux PDAs? I'd love to run Linux on my PDA, if for nothing but the applications, but without Graffiti, I'm sure I wouldn't use it much.
Then again, how does text entry happen on WinCE? I've never used it.
Linux may be new to the PDA scene, but some background principles must still be abided by. Julie Hinds of the San Francisco Examiner had an interesting article on the "Do's and Don'ts of PDAs" that holds just as true today as it did when it was first published four years ago.
Read the rest of this comment...
The advantages of Linux stated in the front article are void when it comes to PDAs.
It's not the kernel that's important, it's the API. Because of this, it doesn't matter that there are lots and lots of programming languages available for Linux/Unix systems. It is simply not the issue for a PDA, if you haven't got a PDA-centric API to start with.
You cannot simply take the current standard APIs for desktop Linux application development (and there are several) and put them on a PDA. You need handwriting recogniation or some similar data input method, you need graphics output, you need a flash-memory file system. All this in a device that has little memory to start with.
Once you have all this, your version of Linux is so product-specific and different from what you know from your desktop that it might be worth considering to use one of the existing PDA-centric environment such as PalmOS or CE.
The PalmOS API is pretty damn neat -- for its specific purpose. You get all the APIs and a full-fledged developers kit (based on the Gnu C compiler and other Gnu tools) for free. C as a language is damn easy to learn and is probably the one language almost every programmer knows. Other than that, there are several alternative (commercial) development kits out there for people who want to avoid C. (Yes, I tried the PalmOS API. I cannot comment on CE, though.)
There are several PDA-environments based on Linux out there, but none of them are actually ready for prime time and all of them require significant rewrites of your existing source. I do hope that one of them will, I was very impressed by the PDA-version of Qt. But again: you cannot use the current advantages of Desktop Linux as arguments for a PDA Linux.
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Actualy, if your running CE you can get microsoft's Visual Basic (or VisualC++, if you want) to program it, it's a free download off their website. I had some stuff up and running on my PocketPC in just a few minutes (a unicode font viewer, since CE supports unicode :)
Of course, visual basic sucks ass as a programming language, but it is 'easy'.
Anyway I don't see why being able to run Linux on a PDA will create a huge overwhelming amount of 'cool' software. I mean, most people already know C++, and I don't see that much cool client-side stuff written in Perl, or whatever.
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
Dont forget smalltalk for the PalmOS. I think its the best solution for the Palm.
www.pocketsmalltalk.com
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Thats what I thought, to, untill I found the free download (Visual Basic and Visual C++). I was very, very, happy
You can be happy to, go Here. This is just for pocketPC, though, not the HPCs, or whatever
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
I would like to point out, though, that just because it runs Linux doesn't mean you can run perl on it or something like that. I just checked, and my perl modules alone are 16MB. Sure I have some extra stuff, but that's the stuff that makes it useful.
The reason most people write in C or C++ for PDA's is speed. I'm involved in a project right now where I'm porting a satallite forms app to Metrowerks C. Not that it didn't work, or wasn't pretty, etc, but it was too slow. PDA's are kinda like programming back in the old days when every pointer mattered and every byte accounted for. Unlike desktop PCs, you're looking at MHz in the double, not triple digits, and memory is usually less than 8M on the majority of palm pilots, and that's shared storage AND heap memory. Not to mention that there's this 32K of contiguous data thing to deal with.
So, just because linux is there doesn't mean you get all these great scripting languages for it, but on the other hand, just because it isn't doesn't mean you CAN'T have them either. The source is free, grab gcc-pila and start porting!
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Graffiti: this is a concern for usability. The only one that I've seen mentioned is xscribble. It's characters are similar to Palm's graffiti, but not exactly the same. I don't know how well it works in general, but on the Agenda VR3d, it needs a little work.
Speed and Memory: Definitely a potential problem. A Palm responds nicely at ~16MHz (don't know for sure). Linux needs a little more power. VR3 is using a 66MHz processor, but it's not as responsive as a Palm. The beta kernels/roms do improve this. They also need a lot more memory to run well. Not a problem for the highend PDA's that have 16-32MB of RAM, but for the VR3 with 8MB, it might be a problem.
Portability: I haven't ported anything myself, but others have. How easy it is will depend on the program. The limitations of a PDA (small screen, less colors) can make it harder to directly port. On the other hand, programs written for the VR3d can easily be compiled to run on an x86 box.
Open source: I'm not sure if this was mentioned before or not. A linux PDA with flash memory can be customized. Compile your own kernel and applications. If you don't like the way the Planner works, you can modify it for yourself. You can't do this for other PDA's.
Free software: This goes with being open source. If you've ever looked through the Palm program archives, there are many shareware apps that cost about 10 bucks each. While some of those might be worth the money, many are not. A linux PDA encourages developers to write free software. This will certainly benefit the end user.
The future of Linux in the PDA world is far from certain. It's quite possible that it will lose to Palm's near monopoly on cheap PDA's. It could, on the other hand, do far better than Palm ever will. It really depends on how many people will support Linux in the handheld environment.
On a side note... I've repeatedly seen people calling the Linux PDA's vaporware. Some might be, but I have one sitting in front of me. Sure, it hasn't been officially released, but it is definitely real.
Handwriting recognition is being worked on:p ng
:) We're currently reworking the algorithm to have a shot at Kanji recognition.
http://www.patentburner.com/~overcode/glyphrec.
Not quite usable yet, but pretty soon handwriting recognition will not be a problem under Linux. Several other projects have also written recognizers, but this one outperforms all of the ones I've seen. It requires very little memory (5k code, 20k database). And it's GPL
As for graphics output, the Linux framebuffer console does a great job, and it's a standard part of the kernel.
Today's PDA's are pretty damn powerful -- many have 32-bit processors (often MIPS- or SH3-based), and at least 8 megs of RAM. The MIPS kernel certainly needed some modifications to run on handhelds, but it's still recognizably Linux, as evidenced by some of the applications it's already running.
-John