From: Vaguely Radio (vradio_at_maine.rr.com)
Date: Sat Sep 11 2004 - 06:57:56 PDT
On Sep 11, 2004, at 2:03 AM, Paul Guyot wrote:
> Aux environs du 11/09/04 à 0:42 -0500, sous le titre "Re: [NTLK] WWNC
> & Einstein", Jim Witte prit sa plus belle plume pour écrire les mots
> suivants:
>>>> Basically a subset of the question might be:
>>>> - should we work on JIT emulation and run on any PDA with any
>>>> processor?
>>>> or
>>>> - should we work on porting Einstein for natice code execution on
>>>> ARM-based PDAs?
>>>> or
>>>> - should we work on porting Einstein for native code execution on
>>>> top
>>>> of an open source POSIX-compliant operating system (like NetBSD or
>>>> Linux)?
>>>>
I'm not a developer, so right at the start let me say that my opinion
is based on being a user only. As a user, this is what I'd like - and
if you can determine a way to make it work, great!
There has been discussion before about why porting MacOSX to a handheld
(and WinXP to devices like the OQO) is A Bad Idea. Handhelds are not
meant to run desktop environments (in my opinion). I think the reverse
is also true.
Humble Opinion #1: NewtonOS is built for handhelds, not desktop boxes.
If porting to a desktop box is necessary or useful for development
(such as Palm's emulator that they provide for developers to test code
on a desktop machine), then so be it. But at the risk of stating the
obvious, for me anyway the NOS is only useful in a handheld. There are
other, better options for full-sized hardware.
Humble Opinion #2: Portability
Whatever solution is provided, it should be able to be easily ported to
new devices. I realise this makes it much harder when you must
essentially develop for multiple hardware configurations, but it also
would negate the requirement that everyone here purchase a Sharp Zaurus
(for example).
Humble Opinion #3: NOS 3.x
It would be great (and much further down the road, I'm sure) if the
focus were not just on salvaging what we already have, but on extending
it. There has been a lot of incredible work done on working around
hardware limitations of the MP2100 in order to squeeze the most
usability out of new modern technologies that the Newton did not
originally support. If there is to be a rebuild of the OS to port it
to new hardware, would it be especially difficult to also build in new
enhancements or "growing room" for new technologies that may be
available? By this I mean, wouldn't it be great if we could allow
NewtonOS to access more memory (something along the lines of Paul's ATA
driver), to support colour screens, to support built-in WiFi cards in
Palm/PocketPC/whatever devices? A better more modern syncing solution?
It seems that looking back at the last few years of development that
many of the "pieces" are already there, even if they do not exactly fit
with the current status of Einstein - ATA support for more memory
handling, Blunt for Bluetooth access, Hiroshi's WiFi driver, NewtSync,
the DCL and Escale as a starting point for syncronisation with modern
devices. Now seems to me a perfect time to proactively envision future
limitations we may encounter, instead of just retrofitting as we are
used to doing.
Humble Opinion #4: "Developability"
In tandem with Opinion 3, it would be great if the ability to extend
the Newton's functionality went hand in hand with an easier way to
develop. I think more devices that run NOS would naturally bring more
people to the platform, including developers. When they get there, it
would be nice to make developing as familiar as possible (but of course
the selfish bastards would have to learn NewtScript!).
Okay, that's my abstract, completely nontechnical analysis.
Personally I'd love to run NOS on my colour Palm device. This would be
the ultimate machine for me as a user. Whatever it took to get there
is what I would (selfishly) like to see the most. I've always wanted a
Newton NC/Newton Jr.
I'm not sure if 100% of these comments relate to Einstein - some of
them are just dreams for the future. What I do know is that in the
past week, much more seems possible than ever before thanks to Paul and
Nicolas' great work. I'm glad that there is discussion on "where to go
from here", instead of playing catch-up with modern technologies.
-Dan
-- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles: http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
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