Hi !
On Sat, 26 Aug 2000, Andy Reed wrote:
> There have been several articles recently on C-Net and on Wired News about
> the latest StrongARM processors from Intel. They have some coming out soon
> at 400 and 600 MHz, with the expected ability to have a 1 GHz processor in
> the near future. The 400 MHz is expected to use similar power to the
> processor in the Newton, if I am understanding these right. All I have to
> say is:
>
> AAARRRGGHH!
>
> I doubt that there's any hope of getting the Newton ported to one of these.
I'm already getting used to the idea that someday, my trusty MP2100 will
die - and nothing will exist to really replace it because all the
competition has to offer are devices that are _still_ inferior.
So I got myself a second MP2100 and put it in storage - just in case ;-)
> Oh, well, I've been wanting a color screen, anyway. Maybe someone will make
> a decent Linux handheld with a color screen, running at 600 MHz, with a nice
> stylish design. Maybe someone will make a Gnome handheld interface...
Hopefully not. As well as GNOME might work as an GUI for a desktop - it
would suck as a handheld GUI. Just look at a Windows CE unit to see what I
mean. You cannot port the normal desktop GUI to a handheld and hope it
will work.
A desktop GUI usually makes several assumptions:
- display resolution: Most current GUI expect a resolution of at least
800x600 pixels. Not only do the look ugly at lower resolutions (say
640x480), sometimes they simply _cannot_ be used because dialog windows
are larger as the screen, GUI widgets (buttons, icons, window titles, ...)
take up most of the screen real estate (leaving almost no place for
anything else (try running Netscape at a 640x480 resolution to see what I
mean - only a window of apprx 620x240 pixels is left for displaying
web pages))
On a handheld, your display resolution is pretty low - 320x480 for
an MP 2100 for instance.
- input methods: Desktop GUIs are usually designed for mouse interaction,
with the keyboard coming in for text input and the like. You don't
_have_ a mouse on a normal handheld and no, a stylus it _not_ a
mouse replacement (drag and drop usually work by clicking on a item,
keeping the mouse button pressed, moving the item with the mouse pointer
to whatever place on the desktop you want and finally releasing the
mouse button to drop the item - won't work for a stylus). Text fields
expecting input on a desktop need only be large enough to keep the
letters readable. On a handheld they have to be large enough to allow
for easy handwriting input (and while letters 7 pixels high might be
readable I don't want to try to write with a stylus in such a small
space).
- color depth of the display: Basically all current GUIs use a wide array
of colors to distinguish their different elements. You don't necessarily
have color on a handheld at all. Some handheld are simple black and white,
others grayscale (MP 2100 with 16 shades of gray) and _some_ have
color displays (but those tend to eat batteries for breakfast).
So, IMHO it is a _very_ bad idea to port a desktop GUI directly to a
handheld - you'll end up with another Windows CE clone. Instead it would
be much better to take the Newton approach: design a GUI explicitly for
your handheld device. This takes a lot more work, but the result is well
worth it - just compare the Newton and Windows CE GUIs.
> As long as I'm dreaming, maybe Apple will recreate the Newton with a color
> screen and a core OS which is Carbon compliant, UNIX based, but with the
> excellent Newton style interface...
Keep dreaming, but it seems like you should keep a look on Compaq,
especially the former Digital labs, who are working on the Itsy. It is
a very interesting device - and they have a very much trimmed down X
already running on it AFAIK. They have the IPAQ (?) which, although
intended primarily as a Windows CE machine, might evolve into something
useful someday ...
Regards,
Alex.
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EMail : als@thangorodrim.de | WWW : http://www.thangorodrim.de/
"I think there's a world market for about five computers."
-- attr. Thomas J. Watson (Chairman of the Board, IBM), 1943
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