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RePalm

dmitry.gr

61–70 of 151 posts

Re: RePalm

#61
post #55
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of interest, and a genuine question, why do you use PDAs when smartphones exist? Surely they do everything the PDAs did but better?

A totally valid question! I did adopt the smartphone for many, many years. My father had a gen-1 iPhone which captured my imagination. At the same time, I've also never really let them run my life. I've habitually always maintained the old (Apple?) hub-and-spoke model where the PC is the core and everything else is a mobile extension of it. I do own some, but they don't get used for much (browser-on-the-go, mostly).…

I aspire to implement this vision of modernity on my life as well. Perhaps it’s time to dust off an old UX40/UX50 and finally make this happen.

Re: RePalm

#62
post #7

Side note: Dmitry (creator of RePalm) is a treasure and his impact on the Palm community cannot be understated. He has a world-class depth of knowledge of the inner workings of these things and is one of the key players in extending PalmOS device capabilities today (patching ROMs, new hardware, etc.). He also contributes regularly to apps the community is developing, teaching us hobby devs new tricks. :) As someone w…

> cannot be understated Seeing this a lot recently[1]. I guess you mean the opposite of what this implies ("his impact is less than you could state"), but I'm curious how this has ended up being almost as commonly used as the "correct" form[2]. Is it an in-joke or reference I'm not getting? 1: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22cannot+be+understated%22+... 2: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22cannot+be+overstated%22…

Oof, and it's too late for me to go back and fix it (unless Dang would be so kind, for posterity).

Definitely meant the positive version and I have no idea how I transposed those two! Apologies for contributing to the mess and appreciate you catching it. :)

Re: RePalm

#63
post #37

As much as I love retro stuff I see no point in reviving Palm. It's like bringing back MS-DOS, perhaps you have something ready made for that environment and you want to use it as is because you don't want to relearn some newer interface. That's ok, it can be done with emulation. But other than that why would you want to impose yourself a bunch of anachronistic limitations?

Art can be worthwhile for its own sake, no?

This has more value to more people than a painting of an apple, I'd guess. I don't see much point in either of them myself; but I don't have to. I can see the point in them in that they gave their creator joy while making them and even more in that others can appreciate them, even if i can't.

Re: RePalm

#64
Really fascinating...General question: Is this an example of the type of tech job that users of LLMs will find way more difficult than average coding jobs?

(Seems this particular example doesn't equate to a paid job but there are certainly analogs in the career world)

Re: RePalm

#65
post #37

As much as I love retro stuff I see no point in reviving Palm. It's like bringing back MS-DOS, perhaps you have something ready made for that environment and you want to use it as is because you don't want to relearn some newer interface. That's ok, it can be done with emulation. But other than that why would you want to impose yourself a bunch of anachronistic limitations?

> can be done with emulation Funny you should say that. There WAS no emulator for any ARM palm devices. Ever. Until I wrote the only one: https://github.com/uARM-Palm/uARM

Well, that does make sense.

It wasn't a slight at you. I appreciate good work and also recreational computing. But is reviving Palm a practical endeavour? Nope, sorry.

The emulator is a good idea for whatever abandonware people might want to use. I might try it myself.

Re: RePalm

#66
post #37

As much as I love retro stuff I see no point in reviving Palm. It's like bringing back MS-DOS, perhaps you have something ready made for that environment and you want to use it as is because you don't want to relearn some newer interface. That's ok, it can be done with emulation. But other than that why would you want to impose yourself a bunch of anachronistic limitations?

FreeDOS brought MS-DOS back from the dead. Was it useless? In my opinion, far from it.

Yes, Palm is useless and archaic of networked features are your #1 use case for a PDA (smartphone) and there’s little use reviving it. However, if you care about old Palm games, or about efficiently organising your life with minimum distractions, then IMO not many modern devices will beat a Palm OS device.

Analogously to MS-DOS, there is a huge application base that you can dip into for most tasks that don’t require online access, that can still be used today. The UI is miles ahead of both iOS and Android, IMO (in both responsiveness and look-and-feel), if you are willing to work within its limitations (that include using a stylus). Dmitry is even working on Unicode support.

I’m glad that RePalm exists. If it didn’t, all we’d be left with is emulators and devices that are starting to fall apart.

Re: RePalm

#67
post #5

This is amazing. I would leap at the chance to build a simple palm device with a 3D printed case, modern hardware that lasts an absolute eternity.

Same here. I can still write Graffiti without thinking, and something I could use as a notepad would be great.

Re: RePalm

#68
post #37

As much as I love retro stuff I see no point in reviving Palm. It's like bringing back MS-DOS, perhaps you have something ready made for that environment and you want to use it as is because you don't want to relearn some newer interface. That's ok, it can be done with emulation. But other than that why would you want to impose yourself a bunch of anachronistic limitations?

FreeDOS brought MS-DOS back from the dead. Was it useless? In my opinion, far from it. Yes, Palm is useless and archaic of networked features are your #1 use case for a PDA (smartphone) and there’s little use reviving it. However, if you care about old Palm games, or about efficiently organising your life with minimum distractions, then IMO not many modern devices will beat a Palm OS device. Analogously to MS-DOS, th…

FreeDOS is exactly what I was describing. Makes sense to use that old software, but not to actually develop for these days. Because you'd be imposing weird anachronistic restrictions on yourself for no good reason.

Re: RePalm

#69
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of that and also a lack of a compelling mass market story. I bought a couple of them and enjoyed playing with them, but they weren’t better-enough to change my habits.

Better than what? What was the competition back then?

People have kept day planners and contact books since forever. Just being electronic isn’t enough of a value prop.

Re: RePalm

#70
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> cannot be understated Seeing this a lot recently[1]. I guess you mean the opposite of what this implies ("his impact is less than you could state"), but I'm curious how this has ended up being almost as commonly used as the "correct" form[2]. Is it an in-joke or reference I'm not getting? 1: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22cannot+be+understated%22+... 2: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22cannot+be+overstated%22…

Oof, and it's too late for me to go back and fix it (unless Dang would be so kind, for posterity). Definitely meant the positive version and I have no idea how I transposed those two! Apologies for contributing to the mess and appreciate you catching it. :)

Oh, well your meaning is obvious from context, didn't mean to nitpick you but was just curious about the trend I seem to be observing, so apologies back :)
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