Thanks for the information Wolfgang! I guess I'll need to install the toolchain again to get that testing image up and running (I switched from Ubuntu to Arch Linux a while ago, and didn't have the time to reinstall it yet). Is fsck2 in this one? If my running debian ran out of power, the fs got garbled and I needed my Linux laptop to fsck the SD card... I would love to do it strictly from the Ben (if not, I can't use it portably enough).
For the Ben to start being a "killer calculator" I think we need: * yacas (have it!) algebra stuff (like a small wolfram's mathematica) * gnuplot (looks like we have it!) * pari-.gp: number-crunching, mostly for number fields and number theoretic people, but I am in applied analysis and use it quite a bit. Hard to port: has lots of platform specific dependencies when "make". If we can build packages directly on the Ben then it can be trivially ported. If not... it would need quite a lot of work. * a C compiler (looks like we have it already in the ben!) * octave (I think we don't have it): I tried to port a long time ago and stumbled into a non-trivial problem, gave up. Don't remember what the issue was. * python and python-num I don't use these, but some folks do and they would do wonders to market it as a perfect calculator. I think they are already there or almost there. I think that would be "all" in some broad sense, I'm probably missing something. But for me at least, I would need * emacs. I know, there's a lot of vi lovers out there. But emacs has interactive modes to run yacas, pari-gp and I think also octave and python. This means that you can use emacs as a meta-calculator system, interacting with everything right away, not needing several open terminal sessions. Also, there's always viper-mode if you miss the beeping ;) Emacs should be portable, but was not trivial enough for my knowledge. I think the Ben has lots of potential as a perfect pocket calculator. My long-forgotten HP49G has less CPU power, less RAM and less options. And the Ben has a color screen, full Linux system... What else could we (mathematicians, engineers...) ask? We even have music & video! Ruben On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 02:49, Wolfgang Spraul <[email protected]> wrote: > Ruben, > >> Today, after maybe 2 months of no use I picked my Ben to listen to >> some music while shaving and showering (it has a very nice speaker >> mounted in... and the battery was at 75 after that much time!). After > > Welcome back also (there was someone else who just reappeared... :-)) > >> that, I decided to upgrade my system (I'm using a very old >> installation these days, and run mostly debian through the microSD >> card). But reflas_ben.sh is not available on the server, returning >> this: > > That was my mistake, I recently fixed some redirects, but not > entirely right. Try again, I hope it works now. > The redirect for reflash_ben.sh goes to > http://projects.qi-hardware.com/p/openwrt-xburst/source/file/master/data/qi_lb60/scripts/reflash_ben.sh > > Our latest official image is still 2010-06-15, since then we are > struggling a bit with making one where GTK/QT and SDL all work well, > but we are getting closer. There is a testing image right now, see > http://lists.en.qi-hardware.com/pipermail/discussion/2010-November/006081.html > > There have been many many fixes and improvements over time, see > http://en.qi-hardware.com/irclogs/search?q=[commit] > > The Jlime images also have made good progress in recent months, no > release yet but there is a beta4 image I think. > > Since you are back, I hope you can give us more guidance on how to > make the Ben a really useful math device. You pointed us to and helped > porting pmars, yacas, and others, and I would like to continue along > these lines. > > Let's make a full list of apps that would turn the NanoNote into a great > math device, and we will work on integrating them well. > Cheers, > Wolfgang > > _______________________________________________ > Qi Hardware Discussion List > Mail to list (members only): [email protected] > Subscribe or Unsubscribe: > http://lists.en.qi-hardware.com/mailman/listinfo/discussion > _______________________________________________ Qi Hardware Discussion List Mail to list (members only): [email protected] Subscribe or Unsubscribe: http://lists.en.qi-hardware.com/mailman/listinfo/discussion
