As I stated in my blog "traditional" Palm OS development is being done by Palm (then palmOne). PalmSource is focused on Palm OS on Linux and providing an API to improve navigation of Palm OS-based applications on non-touchscreen phones. Recent management moves had them ripe for a takeover. Access has some pretty sharp minds, which is what PalmSource is in deperate need.
I pretty much agree with Joel, but he left off one major point. Most programmers learn how to write code. They don't know how to read someone else's code. Give a new hire someone's code to update and I'll bet you most of it will be rewritten because "it's too complicated" or some other lame reason (which really means "I couldn't understand what was going on so I redid it from scratch").
(Of couse, since no school teaches you how to read code, you're on your own here...)
Symbian is already under Nokia's control. It's an open OS in name only. Psion has already started to experiment with Windows CE: http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/4156.html
This would more be a move by Nokia to make sure that Psion (who's EPOCH OS was the basis for Symbian) doesn't jump ship. They've lost Motorola and others.
To be honest, Symiban would only benefit - the consortium has not been as effective as it could have been - it's only been Nokia's intervention that's helped them make any progress.
It's a very nice handheld. The SD and CF support is very nice (like Handera). I like the screen a lot, it's very crisp and readable, and it has good performance. You can program it in Java (Personal Java 1.2 compliant, which means a JDK 1.1.8 level, but still pretty good, and with some Java2 extensions) or Linux (you can download the cross-compilation tools from Sharp's develop site at http://developer.sharpsec.com). The Qt Palmtop is a good start, but my complaint is too much emphasis on flash (3D icons) and not enough on some nice features (like categories in the address book). I also wish it had a single-button beam feature for a business card (like the Palm's all do). It beats the crap out of an Agenda VR-3 or an iPaq running PocketLinux. If you look at it as their first entry in the market, then it's a great first step.
Saw him give a reading about 17 years ago - he was fantastic/funny/silly/great. Now I'll be really sad this weekend - guess I need to go re-read them again...
You can sign an NDA and get the OS source, but if all you want is the datebook, Palm makes that source freely available as part of the SDK samples. If you download the Prc-Tools and get the SDK you'll get the source for datebook.
Boy, I never thought I'd see FUD like this aimed at the embedded OS realm:).
The embedded OS world is pretty fragmented - to claim that someone's lunch is being eaten up is to assume that there is anyone with a market share that is large enough to be considered a lunch. The fact is that so many people have so many distinct requirements there is NO "one-size-fits-all" solution here (sorry to Linux fans and also to Microsoft who have both CE and NT Embedded competing in this space) and, consequently, a lot of opportunity for all.
(BTW, one of the biggest competitors in this market is the "roll-your-own" OS - it might even have the biggest market share:) ).
I remember when I started working, the company that first hired me (Sybron Taylor Instrument Division) got in a 11/780. 2 Meg of memory, next to no disk space, a cross-compiler for the 68K-based devices we were developing code for (running on the MTOS real-time operating system). 30 terminals, all compiles had to go through the batch queue so that one person wouldn't kill the system. What a great day it was when they bought the extra 2 Meg of memory to make it 4 Meg! Gawd, a TRG Pro w/ an IBM CF hard drive is more powerful than that beast!
I think that the VAX/VMS days harken back to an earlier era (one that Rob Pike bemoaned the loss of in his recent Polemic, "System Research is Irrelevant"). I feel the loss, but it's more like a child-who's-now-become-an-adult feeling. I really want to say something like "You kids don't know how hard it was in the good old days" but I really don't think that's important. The VAX is dead. Sleep well. We're all moving on.
Let's be honest - neither of these beasts has a simple install. It's partly the installation mechanisms, but a lot of it has to do with hardware support. I've installed various windows, Unix-es (Unices?), and other oddball OS's on a lot of Intel and other hardware. I've got over 17 years of experience installing this stuff, it's still tough! Macs and Solaris boxes are easier to install, but only because the company controls the harware and the software.
I think that the Windows installation routines have a slicker look-and-feel that really puts the person doing the install at ease. Don't think it's any simpler than a Linux install, though, just prettier.
I've done a lot of Token Ring installs, for example, never found an OS that installed easily there.
I've got a hybrid ethernet/modem PCMCIA card at home. Took me several hours to get it working under Windows, and I never got the modem part to work. Worked out of the box on Linux (including modem). Whoever wrote the driver for it really paid attention to the details.
Linux is pretty ambitious in that it is trying to support a lot of older hardware (386/486 systems) with smaller resource footprints. From an installation and start-up/booting point-of-view, this is only increasing its complexity. And we want the Linux install package to provide a novice installer interface as well as an expert interface. Windows has the one mechanism.
The bottom line - I'd rather fight with Linux installs than Windows installs, but not by much. The key work is fight.
Slashdot Mirror
As I stated in my blog "traditional" Palm OS development is being done by Palm (then palmOne). PalmSource is focused on Palm OS on Linux and providing an API to improve navigation of Palm OS-based applications on non-touchscreen phones. Recent management moves had them ripe for a takeover. Access has some pretty sharp minds, which is what PalmSource is in deperate need.
I pretty much agree with Joel, but he left off one major point. Most programmers learn how to write code. They don't know how to read someone else's code. Give a new hire someone's code to update and I'll bet you most of it will be rewritten because "it's too complicated" or some other lame reason (which really means "I couldn't understand what was going on so I redid it from scratch").
(Of couse, since no school teaches you how to read code, you're on your own here...)
Symbian is already under Nokia's control. It's an open OS in name only. Psion has already started to experiment with Windows CE: http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/4156.html
This would more be a move by Nokia to make sure that Psion (who's EPOCH OS was the basis for Symbian) doesn't jump ship. They've lost Motorola and others.
To be honest, Symiban would only benefit - the consortium has not been as effective as it could have been - it's only been Nokia's intervention that's helped them make any progress.
Best In Show (Funny)
Time After Time (HG Wells meets Jack the Ripper)
Iron Giant (a great animated film)
It's a very nice handheld. The SD and CF support is very nice (like Handera). I like the screen a lot, it's very crisp and readable, and it has good performance. You can program it in Java (Personal Java 1.2 compliant, which means a JDK 1.1.8 level, but still pretty good, and with some Java2 extensions) or Linux (you can download the cross-compilation tools from Sharp's develop site at http://developer.sharpsec.com). The Qt Palmtop is a good start, but my complaint is too much emphasis on flash (3D icons) and not enough on some nice features (like categories in the address book). I also wish it had a single-button beam feature for a business card (like the Palm's all do). It beats the crap out of an Agenda VR-3 or an iPaq running PocketLinux. If you look at it as their first entry in the market, then it's a great first step.
Saw him give a reading about 17 years ago - he was fantastic/funny/silly/great. Now I'll be really sad this weekend - guess I need to go re-read them again...
You can sign an NDA and get the OS source, but if all you want is the datebook, Palm makes that source freely available as part of the SDK samples. If you download the Prc-Tools and get the SDK you'll get the source for datebook.
The embedded OS world is pretty fragmented - to claim that someone's lunch is being eaten up is to assume that there is anyone with a market share that is large enough to be considered a lunch. The fact is that so many people have so many distinct requirements there is NO "one-size-fits-all" solution here (sorry to Linux fans and also to Microsoft who have both CE and NT Embedded competing in this space) and, consequently, a lot of opportunity for all.
(BTW, one of the biggest competitors in this market is the "roll-your-own" OS - it might even have the biggest market share
I remember when I started working, the company that first hired me (Sybron Taylor Instrument Division) got in a 11/780. 2 Meg of memory, next to no disk space, a cross-compiler for the 68K-based devices we were developing code for (running on the MTOS real-time operating system). 30 terminals, all compiles had to go through the batch queue so that one person wouldn't kill the system. What a great day it was when they bought the extra 2 Meg of memory to make it 4 Meg! Gawd, a TRG Pro w/ an IBM CF hard drive is more powerful than that beast!
I think that the VAX/VMS days harken back to an earlier era (one that Rob Pike bemoaned the loss of in his recent Polemic, "System Research is Irrelevant"). I feel the loss, but it's more like a child-who's-now-become-an-adult feeling. I really want to say something like "You kids don't know how hard it was in the good old days" but I really don't think that's important. The VAX is dead. Sleep well. We're all moving on.
Let's be honest - neither of these beasts has a simple install. It's partly the installation mechanisms, but a lot of it has to do with hardware support. I've installed various windows, Unix-es (Unices?), and other oddball OS's on a lot of Intel and other hardware. I've got over 17 years of experience installing this stuff, it's still tough! Macs and Solaris boxes are easier to install, but only because the company controls the harware and the software.
I think that the Windows installation routines have a slicker look-and-feel that really puts the person doing the install at ease. Don't think it's any simpler than a Linux install, though, just prettier.
I've done a lot of Token Ring installs, for example, never found an OS that installed easily there.
I've got a hybrid ethernet/modem PCMCIA card at home. Took me several hours to get it working under Windows, and I never got the modem part to work. Worked out of the box on Linux (including modem). Whoever wrote the driver for it really paid attention to the details.
Linux is pretty ambitious in that it is trying to support a lot of older hardware (386/486 systems) with smaller resource footprints. From an installation and start-up/booting point-of-view, this is only increasing its complexity. And we want the Linux install package to provide a novice installer interface as well as an expert interface. Windows has the one mechanism.
The bottom line - I'd rather fight with Linux installs than Windows installs, but not by much. The key work is fight.