[fpc-pascal]PalmOS

[Full_Name]

Quoting Florian Klaempfl <florian at klaempfl.de>:

> At 00:56 17.08.01 +0100, you wrote:
> I don't think that this happen that fast. If they give
> up the m68k PalmOS support, they've no chance against WinCE. The
> big advantage of the PalmOS is the large number of applications.

PalmOS 5 has always been billed as being on non M68K hardware. Palm have been 
making their API 'generic' and processor independent for quite a few years. In 
fact, one of the jobs that John Marshal started, when Palm hired him to 
continue the GCC port he was at that point maintaining, was to remove all the 
Mac-isms in the API (there were a lot of typed pointers, which are a hang over 
from MacOS which was originally written in Pascal.) The PalmOS 3.5 API is 
really, really different to the PalmOS3.0 API for example.

> >Palm will either move to BeIA
> >or a hybrid - probably on a PowerPC/Risc processor.
> 
> I'am still not sure, if a handheld needs a faster processor than
> the m68k. Ok, if it runs WinCE :) . I can't imagine a serious
> application which needs more than the speed of a m68k. And a faster 
> processor consumes always more battery power.

The Palm is woefully underpowered. I had a Gameboy emulator for my Handspring - 
it used up half the battery power I had left in 10 minutes. In normal ussage, 
that should have lasted for about two weeks.

I personally would love to use an OS on a handheld that is non M$, but has real 
power. I would have opted for Epoc on the Psion, untill they dropped out of the 
consumer market recently. I would love to see BeIA on a Palm device :-)

> Hmmm, personally I've already the opinion for 1 or 2 years that BeOS is
> dead but I thought the people making the BeOS port know it better :)

BeOS died some time around march. Be more or less dropped it like a hot potato. 
Now that Be Inc is unlikely to continue - the writing is on the wall. We (the 
users) hoped that it wan't so, but... ah, well.

I'm really wondering now if the Be port is worth the effort. I think I'll 
continue for fun.. After all FPc was ported to the Amiga, and that died for me 
in about 1992 :-) Hopefully Be will release BeOS R6 as a parting gift to 
users.. I can only hope anyway!

--

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
GCS d? s+++:+ a- C++ UL+ P L++ E---- W- N+ o+ K- w 
O- M V PS PE-- Y PGP- t- 5-- X- R- tv+ b+ DI++ D+ 
G e++ h--- r+++ y+++ 
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------