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Zaurus Development with Qtopia

Posted by timothy on from the squash-it-in dept.

Radical Rad writes "There is a great article by Bruce Forsberg at Linux Gazette for anyone wanting to develop for the Zaurus platform. Using a mileage calculator as an example, he covers step by step setting up the Qtopia SDK, compiling, testing with the Zaurus emulator, and finally cross-compiling and creating the distribution package. He covers all the bases including compile-time environment variables and the control file for the ipkg."

6 of 27 comments (clear)

  1. No mention of OpenZaurus by ccady · · Score: 3, Interesting

    <freesoftwareplug>

    Lots of people use OpenZaurus which is more stable, configurable, and (need I say?) way cooler than the proprietary ROM that comes with the machine.

    </freesoftwareplug>

    --
    J'aime mieux les méchants que les imbéciles, parce qu'ils se reposent. -- Alexandre Dumas
  2. Gtk PDA Environment (GPE) by Paul+Jakma · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Or what about the even cooler (but not as mature) GTK+ 2 based GPE? X based so when at home you can have your apps display to your desktop and make use of a real keyboard. Though the graffiti-like Xstroke app GPE uses is excellent and so you might not miss your desktop keyboard :).

    --
    I use Friend/Foe + mod-point modifiers as a karma/reputation system.
    1. Re:Gtk PDA Environment (GPE) by sydb · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I see you're one of the developers of GPE.

      The Familiar HOWTO doesn't mention the Zaurus. Can I run Familiar / GPE on the Zaurus? Easily? Familiar seems very pro-iPaq.

      Does Familiar run the same kernel as OpenZaurus? There are issues with the SD Card driver on the Zaurus; Sharp won't release the specs so Sharp's binary module must be used.

      TIA

      --
      Yours Sincerely, Michael.
    2. Re:Gtk PDA Environment (GPE) by RevAaron · · Score: 2

      1. You can use X11 apps from within Qtopia on the Zaurus or any Linux PDA using an Xserver that displays within a Qtopia window. Just as easy.

      2. There's no way I'll not miss my real keyboard until I have real handwriting recognition on my Linux PDA. Not stroke or character recognition, which is what Xstroke, Graffitti, Jot and the system in Qtopia all are. No one seems to be working on a such a project, yet another case of Linux people not knowing how good they could have it.

      But then again, character recognition that doesn't immensely blow would be a step in the right direction- the CR built into Qtopia on the Zaurus is so ass-slow. For numbers it is quick enough, by virtue of having fewer characters to recognize. However, in either caps or small letter boxes, it takes like 500 ms to recognize a frigging letter! HA! Not acceptable. How is Xstroke?

      --

      Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
  3. Re:Great news by RevAaron · · Score: 2, Informative

    Well, I don't really think it's more flexible. There is potential for it to be more flexible, but considering the mindset of most Linux developers, I don't think it will be in the end. While I still have hopes, I don't see much innovation (excuse the poor word) coming out of OZ or Sharp ROMland. No doubt it will improve, perhaps even rival other platforms in some areas someday.

    Unless by flexible you mean having the ability to compile pretty easily a wide variety of apps which don't really belong on the Z, in which case yes. But I've actually (and regrettably) found WinCE-based PDAs to be more flexible than the Zaurus in terms of software available and what you can do with it. What kinds of flexibility where you thinking of?

    The stuff usually cited by Z fans as being a part of this flexibility- SSH/telnet, VNC, X11, perl or python programming, having a shell, etc all can be done on WinCE, and often times its easier to setup on WinCE than it is on PDA Linux for these Unix packages. You've also got a better chance finding a front-end or an adapted version of this package for the smaller-screen, smaller-resource configuration of a PDA with a WinCE port than the Zaurus version. I kind of assumed that it would work out the otherway when I bought my Z and find I have more *practical* desktop Unix software ports on my Jornada 720 than on my Zaurus.

    That said, no other mobile platform beats Opera and Konq on the Z for speed and quality of the browser. Pocket IE on PocketPC is pretty bad, but IE on Handheld PC 2000 (also WinCE 3.0-based) is a lot better...

    --

    Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
  4. What the Zaurus needs. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've got one and what it needs to be a decent pda is:

    A good wordprocessor.
    A good spreadsheet.
    More than anything else, a good agenda and good desktop syncronisation.

    All things that suck in the existing Zaurus software. That leaves a gap for 3rd party commercial or freeware replacements.

    The one piece of software which makes the machine worth using is IQNotes. It rocks, definite potential.