> Now that there are Linux PDA's entering the market (Agenda VR3 for
> instance), are there any work with Plucker aiming towards such devices?
> Will it be much work to convert Plucker to work for Linux?
It will be a bit of a rewrite, and my understanding is that Mike has
already begun to do this. He posted a message a week or more ago about this
exact topic.
However, I am still of the belief that a Linux-based PDA will still
not be able to match the power and simplicity of the PalmOS-based PDAs. I'm
not talking about pure width-of-functionality or processor speeds, I'm
speaking of the simplistic device which is a PDA, not a handheld forced to
perform slimmed down duties more suited to a desktop machine or laptop.
I have yet to see a linux distribution which fits in 900k of ROM,
includes serial, IR, USB, and other physical functions, as well as supporting
the thousands of applications which are available for Palm. I am not a Palm
spokesperson, and anyone who knows me knows I have locked horns with Palm many
many times, but I still use my Palm devices because they're the most
functional and powerful things I have at this point to hold my data.
I just don't think you can remove enough of linux and leave it as
functional as the current KADAK kernel resident on the Palm devices, without
crippling the whole purpose for using linux, maximum configurability. KADAK
has it's flaws too (for example, Palm is bound, by license to not expose any
more than one thread in their OS sitting on top of this kernel)
This is why PalmOS will never be multithreaded, until they get away
from the KADAK kernel, you can find more info here:
http://oasis.palm.com/dev/kb/faq/1053.cfm
There are places Linux just doesn't fit, and I think a <30Mhz device
with 8 megs of storage for applications is one of those places... for now.
That is not to say that someone will not develop a kernel which is
linux-based to run on PDAs, but I haven't seen one yet, and I spend every
waking moment in the embedded and PDA environment, which includes iPAQ (mine
runs linux), Helio, Cybiko, Yopy, Agenda, Palm, TiVO, iOpener, and others.
> I read that Plucker originated from Linux on the stationary device, so I
> got some hope. But I understand Plucker is aimed towards Palm OS on the
> handheld side. I have limited experience with Palm OS. I have an Ipaq
> which I'd like to convert to Linux. What prevents me is the inability to
> read newspapers and ebooks with Linux.
The best thing we can do to help speed this is to understand where
Mike is going with the codebase for the viewer, and help our where we can to
speed that development. He's one person, and I've been too far away from the
codebase to be able to dive in right away without taking a week or two (or
more) to understand how it's changed since I last had my fingers in it.
Is your goal to have a full Plucker-based browsing service on your
linux-based iPAQ? On my iPAQ, I'm running a PyGtk-based browser, which holds
all of my webpages in cache on the device. It suits me for now, but that's
because I have full connectivity at all times to some network where I can get
to the internet. It wouldn't really make sense to try to port Palm-based
applications or data formats to this device (.pdb files for example). Another
neutral format would have to be derived. Also, the parser has to change to
support this and a suitable "sync" algorithm has to be designed or reworked to
get data onto the device. What about when someone (with a Palm) wants to beam
you one of their PDB files (to your iPAQ)? How do we handle conversion?
There are a lot of issues, it's not simply a matter of changing the
compile target to arm instead of m68k.
We all welcome any and all comments, and of course, let's jump in
there and help out where we can! I don't mind filtering/brokering any ideas,
suggestions, patches, whatever, if Mike, Chris, Bill, Dirk and myself get
overwhelmed.
/d
