I see that the subject of Pocket PCs has been touched upon quite often,
and as a newbie, I'd just like to add some of my thoughts...
First of all, to me, a pocket version of J is INDISPENSABLE during the
learning period (and most likely for an idefinite time after that, too).
When I sit at my desk I have too many other things to do. OTOH, I went
through the labs in my car, while waiting for the kids, and I already
use J as my 'calculator of choice', which is a great way to try ideas on
the fly, as they pop into one's head.
Everyone who's seen it work is impressed. Previously I used Scheme to
try out ideas, but there's just no comparison when it comes to
tractability, e.g:
(] + %)
vs
(lambda li (map (lambda(x)(+ x (/ 1 x))) li)
yes, I might do
(fork id + inv)
but I'd still have to define 'fork' and generic forms of 'id' and 'inv'
to work on either lists or numbers. There's just no comparison, and
Scheme *is* elegant. I don't even want to imagine using Perl or Python.
My mobile device had been an old Jornada 928 that's done years of
sterling service, so much so that I'm still happy to use it despite it's
'museum' value. The ancient o/s, PocketPC 2002, meant I had to install
J 501, but that doesn't seem to be a real problem, at least for my
present requirements.
====
Now here's the problematic part.
I'd mothballed the Jornada when I got a Nokia 770 (internet tablet).
Great little machines, cheap as chips, brilliant 800x400 screen, full
Debian, ARM-class processor, slightly limiting user GUI (Hildon) but not
a major problem.
It can also use Bluetooth, which means that I can I have a separate
phone that doesn't look like a bagatelle!
Unfortunately, software support is a bit slow, surprising really when
you think how many people were screaming for a Linux palmtop, but all
the infrastructure is in place for anyone that wants to use it.
I'd love to see J run on this, even if it's just on the console. I am
loth to go back to Windows (2003, WM5, WM6 or whatever). Obviously, I
understand that the investment return may not be worthwhile for
JSoftware to port it to Linux ARM, but boy, would it be nice... In any
case, I'm hedging my bets by setting it up to run under SSH - but a
local installation would be fantastic, too.
====
At this stage I'd like to mention an interesting setup I came across
when using the CLIPS expert system software. The core module has
facilities for redirection of the I/O, which means that anyone can write
an interface, whether, it's sockets, curses, or a library like Qt,
wxWidgets, MS-Windows or whatever _without_ meddling at all with the
core code.
Now CLIPS is open software, but even if it wasn't, a system like the
above would allow the distribution of the core libraries in compiled
form (obviously they already run on ARM for the PocketPC machines) and
anyone else (hint-hint) could create an environment for them on their
own platform, if the core was supported.
====
Anyway, apologies for prattling on, it's just that I'm really taken with
J, and enthusiastic to see it doing well in all ways possible.
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