Handheld Programming?

dutky asks: "What devices does Slashdot recommend for the programmer on the go? Recently I went on vacation to Vietnam. Before we left my wife asked what I would do if I couldn't program for a month. I tried to assemble an inexpensive and portable programming environment using a Palm 130, but it was less than satisfactory. With the recent article on the Zarus PDA I have gotten to thinking about the problem again. Notably, I -don't- need a whopping amount of RAM, disk space, or processor speed, and I can live with fairly modest screen sizes. I was unable to find anything that matched all these criteria in about two weeks of occasional (and hurried) research. Do any such beasts exist?"

"My requirements are pretty simple:

• Small and durable (I was packing three and a half weeks of clothes and stuff in a moderately large backpack)
• Long battery life (able to get in a good 8-hour programming session without interruption)
• Able to use a keyboard (I can't write C code from Grafitti)
• Reasonable screen resolution (I need to be able to see at least 80 columns by 40 lines)
• Ability to run a wide variety of programming tools (at least a good editor, C compiler, and probably several common scripting languages as well)
• External mass storage of some kind (I'd settle for SD or CF cards)
• Relatively inexpensive: $200-$400 is a good range (I don't want to be too upset if it gets lost, stolen or dropped off of a cliff)"

Comments

Your wife...

[stefanlasiewski]

Before we left my wife asked what I would do if I couldn't program for a month

Err, I think that was your wife's way of asking you nto not program for a month. After all, you were on vacation in Vietnam, and it's a good time to relax.

I went to Europe for 3 weeks last summer. In 3 weeks, I spent 5 minutes on the computer booking a train reservation. 3 weeks. No computer. Beautiful.

Re:Your wife...

[lowtekneq]

No computer. Beautiful.
This is Slashdot, most of us don't feel well without our computers. When I'm on vacation I don't do any major programming projects, but I like to get on the net every once in a while to get on aim, or check mail etc. I enjoy technology, and I don't understand how someone else who does (im guessing this dude does) would find this beautiful or relaxing

Programming != computer

[heikkile]

A simple solution: Pen and paper. For a few $ you can get enough paper to write a large system on. No worries about battery time, display resolution, or keyboard. Survives the worst conditions.

For a long time all programming was done this way, first on scratch paper, then on "fine" paper, then punched on cards or tape, and finally fed to a Computer, which took several hours to produce a pile of listing with one important syntax error in it...

Seriously, most projects can use a few weeks of high-level thinking, without writing many lines of code. Even if you loose the papers, the thinking will have been good for your project.

Re:Programming != computer

[lbonser]

A very very good point. Way too much code is written with little or no forethought and programmers would really benefit from learning to do stuff the "old-fashioned way."

Re:OMG!

[Atzanteol]

There are two types of people in this world (okay, probably more but)... Those with 'drive', and those without.

I'm a programmer, and I also happen to do that for a living. If I weren't hired as a programmer, I would still code. I like vacations away from programming sometimes, but often I wouldn't mind to do some tinkering late at night (yes, even while on vacation).

There are people like this in many professions (math, arts, etc.). Some people just gotta create!

I am -ashamed-.

[wackybrit]

I am so ashamed at many of the posters above for their "it's a vacation, don't program!" attitudes. WTF? This isn't Kuro5hin! This is Slashdot!

Clearly we're seeing the true geeks wandering from the flock and getting married and laid. Let's hope we get some new replacements soon.

Some of us enjoy programming as a hobby y'know.