Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Mine is a Sony Clié (PEG-SJ30/U). PalmOS, 320x320 colour, 16MB internal (and I've got a 128MB Memory Stick stuck in it. Not the least bit impressive by today's standards, but pretty damned nifty for a hand-me down, and a significant step up from my first one (Handspring Visor Platinum, 8MB, 160x160 monochrome). And even the Visor was surprisingly-to-me useful -- until I was given one, I thought PDAs looked like "cute toys, probably fun to play with, possibly actually useful for specialized applications". After a couple months using one, that turned into "how the %^$# did I ever manage to get along without one of these before?" (Which made dropping the Visor and destroying its screen pretty traumatic.) With DocumentsToGo (subsets of Word and Excel functionality, converts to/from Word and Excel files during HotSync) and the higher resolution (and better contrast) screen and enough memory to keep a whole lotta stuff with me, I'd have to say the Clié prett much kicks ass regardless of the existence of more recent PDAs which presumably kick ass even harder. I just need to save up some pennies to get an RDBMS for it (I haven't seen a free one but I should probably search again), a couple more Bibles (so I can compare translations instead of just looking at the free one that came with the BibleReader app) and a couple more Memory Sticks (so I can use a separate stick for backups instead of eating space on my main one, and so that I can dedicate one Memory Stick to an eBook library ... yeah, I'm feeling cramped with 144MB of memory). The only thing it won't do that I already know I want (as opposed to things I may want once I find out about them) is WiFi.

I've got C^[1], Forth^[2], and Lisp^[3] on the Clié, but I've been writing in BASIC^[4] because a) I can't seem to free up enough RAM to run any but itty bitty toy Lisp programs, b) I haven't gotten around to learning Forth like I started to a year and a half ago before I got distracted, and c) even though what I'm writing really ought to be in C, I got impatient to start prototyping and I haven't gotten around to really studying the PalmOS API and I/O environment with its forms and resources and stuff. At the cost of performance, this BASIC looks very similar to the ancient Microsoft Basic that I remember from the TRS-80 and the IBM PC (okay, maybe closer to disk BASIC on the IBM XT than the cassette BASIC in ROM on the IBM PC, if you want to be picky about it, or to not-so-subtly work in a bit of retrocomputing trivia gratuitously). So instead of actually learning the PalmOS way of doing things, which I do plan to get around to, I'm taking the "like riding a bicycle" easy way out for now. But the C compiler is sitting there waiting for me to get around to it ...

If I'm not mistaken, there's also Java for PalmOS, but I'm not certain whether that includes a native development environment or I'd have to cross-develop from another platform. I'd also need to get around to learning Java, of course (another thing that's been on my to-do list for a while).

Despite the hassles of dealing with source code in a really limited text editor^[5] and a tiny screen, I like the fact that I can work on programs wherever I happen to be killing time, such as in a waiting room, and that when the house is really cold I can bury myself under the blankets and not have to stick my hands out to type. Plus, there's just something geekcool about native tools, like having a C compiler installed makes this pocket gadget technically a real computer or something. :-)

Of course, even greater geekcoolth would be having a PDA that runs Linux or BSD (AFAIK, only the Zaurus, which I'm unfortunately unlikely to get my hands on).

[1] OnBoardC (http://onboardc.sourceforge.net/)
[2] Quartus Forth (http://www.quartus.net/)
[3] LispMe (http://www.lispme.de/index.html#lispme/index.html)
[4] SmallBASIC (http://smallbasic.sourceforge.net/)
(All free, all right on the PDA itself.)
[5] I want my 'vi'! Waaaaah!

check your email, glenn.