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DevTerm - An Open Source Portable Terminal for Every Dev

clockworkpi.com

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Re: DevTerm - An Open Source Portable Terminal for Every Dev

#51

Post by dewey »

alpaca128 wrote: post #48
oftenwrong wrote: post #11

The flat design would seem to make this even less ergonomic than a laptop (an already low bar). Is this meant to be placed on a desk? The user would basically have to hang their head down to look at the display, which is just in front of their fingers. There is no possible way to maintain a healthy posture without an external display. Otherwise, the retro hardware aesthetic is cool. Reminds me a bit of the early brie…

> There is no possible way to maintain a healthy posture without an external display. I know a physical therapist who would strongly disagree with this; in fact he explicitly recommends to use a laptop for ergonomic reasons unless you can achieve a proper, ergonomic setup with an external screen. The reason being that if used properly(laptop far back so you can rest the whole forearms and elbows on the table) the ang…

> the angles and positioning are supposed to be pretty good

This seems hard to imagine, your neck is still going to be strained by looking "down" on the screen all the time. If you have to work with a laptop and don't have access to an external screen at least put it up on a pile of books and use an external keyboard / mouse. That doesn't cost much and improves your posture so much.

Re: DevTerm - An Open Source Portable Terminal for Every Dev

#53

Post by Grimm665 »

dmd wrote: post #29
XzAeRosho wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, it looks like a nice tool if you take it to debug on-site devices.

I would buy something like this if it had HDMI and VGA in , and could let me use as a portable console to plug into machines.

I recently picked up a Motorola LapDock from eBay. It was originally used as a keyboard, trackpad, and screen in a laptop format for the Atrix smartphone, but with some converter cables, you can plug into any machine with HDMI and USB and use it exactly as you describe. It's finicky, but works well enough to be useful. Total cost for the LapDock and cables was under $100.

Re: DevTerm - An Open Source Portable Terminal for Every Dev

#54

Post by moron4hire »

oftenwrong wrote: post #11

The flat design would seem to make this even less ergonomic than a laptop (an already low bar). Is this meant to be placed on a desk? The user would basically have to hang their head down to look at the display, which is just in front of their fingers. There is no possible way to maintain a healthy posture without an external display. Otherwise, the retro hardware aesthetic is cool. Reminds me a bit of the early brie…

The display is 6.5", so this is about the footprint of an iPad Mini. That, and considering it has gamepad buttons in the upperleft and upperright corners of the keyboard, I supsect you're expected to hand-hold it.

Re: DevTerm - An Open Source Portable Terminal for Every Dev

#55

Post by woahAcademia »

stjo wrote: post #42

For everybody wondering what this is: DevTerm is a retro-entertainment terminal. Powerful hardware allows you to smoothly relive the history of various famous video games, software, and even vintage systems. DevTerm provides you with the latest open-source OS, rich applications, and development tools, from Web browsers, multimedia APPs to many indie-game engines. One more thing, just like LEGO, Gundam, Tamiya, the un…

The ergonomics is a deal breaker.

Re: DevTerm - An Open Source Portable Terminal for Every Dev

#56

Post by falcolas »

dewey wrote: post #51
alpaca128 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is no possible way to maintain a healthy posture without an external display. I know a physical therapist who would strongly disagree with this; in fact he explicitly recommends to use a laptop for ergonomic reasons unless you can achieve a proper, ergonomic setup with an external screen. The reason being that if used properly(laptop far back so you can rest the whole forearms and elbows on the table) the ang…

> the angles and positioning are supposed to be pretty good This seems hard to imagine, your neck is still going to be strained by looking "down" on the screen all the time. If you have to work with a laptop and don't have access to an external screen at least put it up on a pile of books and use an external keyboard / mouse. That doesn't cost much and improves your posture so much.

Experience and my neck agrees with you. Sitting properly, my neck would has to be at about a 35° - 45° angle to see the screen at all. It's a guaranteed tension headache.

Re: DevTerm - An Open Source Portable Terminal for Every Dev

#58

Post by moron4hire »

alpaca128 wrote: post #48
oftenwrong wrote: post #11

The flat design would seem to make this even less ergonomic than a laptop (an already low bar). Is this meant to be placed on a desk? The user would basically have to hang their head down to look at the display, which is just in front of their fingers. There is no possible way to maintain a healthy posture without an external display. Otherwise, the retro hardware aesthetic is cool. Reminds me a bit of the early brie…

> There is no possible way to maintain a healthy posture without an external display. I know a physical therapist who would strongly disagree with this; in fact he explicitly recommends to use a laptop for ergonomic reasons unless you can achieve a proper, ergonomic setup with an external screen. The reason being that if used properly(laptop far back so you can rest the whole forearms and elbows on the table) the ang…

Given OSHA's recommendations on setting up a computer workstation, I think perhaps you need a new physical therapist:

https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/computerworkstations/index....

Re: DevTerm - An Open Source Portable Terminal for Every Dev

#60

Post by moron4hire »

thinbeige wrote: post #46

OT: I fell into the rabbit hole of designing hardware (something like this). Just don't do it, it's super fun but it doesn't pay off: every SoC is different and you start with every SoC from scratch and waste tons of time. Prototyping is slow, you need min 2 weeks for every iteration (for smaller endeavors) and the worst, 98% of hardware-based business models are weak and don't provide any lock-in.

They're basing this (and their other product, the GameShell, which looks like an old Gameboy) on the Raspberry Pi compute module. I believe they have their own PCB to fit into their formfactors, but the SoC should be well-supported.
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