Survex 1.0 within sight

[John Pybus]

Wookey wrote:
> 
> On Thu 17 Aug, John Pybus wrote:
> 
> > In short if I was starting this again today, I would rather be
> > developing for one of these: http://www.agendacomputing.com/ .
> > Apparently a Linux 2.4 kernel(hmm), a 66MHz MIPS processor, and an X
> > Windows based display, but of course not actually shipping yet ;-)
> 
> Ah but you can already get something extremely similar - the Compaq
> ipaq3600 along with an armlinux port by compaq research labs, (which we
> hope to be flogging sometime fairly soon, so I might have a couple spare
> at some point....).
> 
> http://www.handhelds.org/platforms.html
> 
> (200Mhz strongarm, 16 or 32Mb ram, ~360 quid). It does seem like a neat
> device except for the abscence of a keyboard, which is neat for
> caving/waterproofing but a pain in the arse for most other things.

Actually the absence of a Keyboard is a major advantage.  Palms, and
similar form factor, are comparatively easy to cave-proof.  You don't
need to enter a lot of text data underground (most interaction can be
reduced to selecting between options - easy to do with touchscreens),
and being able to draw sketches on the screen is rather useful.  I've
been keeping an eye on the various options, but the problem with
strongarm based systems is generally price.  The projected price for
Agenda's device is comparable with a low end Palm (about US$150) less
than a quarter of the cost of an iPaq.  With the rate of progress being
made on handheld computing paying more for something you intend to abuse
underground seems foolish ;-).

Anyway, having made the effort to port to the Palms rather inflexible
API, I'm not looking for new platforms right now.

Yours,

John