New Palm Compatible

John Duncan jddst19+ at pitt.edu
Thu Sep 23 19:24:11 UTC 1999


> parameter to interpret).  Is this requirement similar to PalmOS's?
If so, we are
> already halfway there.
>

That's really hard to say. The Palm memory model is unique, to say the
least. Ideally, the interpreter should not be terribly different from
the original ST-80 interpreter, although certain concessions for
31-bit smallints and object pointers, already known, should not be a
problem.

I'm more wondering if Squeak has the ability to use the PalmOS as a
'take-it-or-leave-it' kind of thing, using the routines most useful
from the ROM and taking over the rest of the system entirely, kind of
like the bare-pc method. The 68328 Dragonball processor is essentially
a 16-MHz 68000 with a whole bunch of hardware support added in. I
wonder if routines like the grafitti library can be kept without
having to subscribe to Palm's entire memory model. It's not imposed by
the hardware, just the software.

On the other hand, I imagine that most people would want to keep the
PalmOS on the machine. This could make it very hard to do seemingly
simple things. Still, not having PalmOS could encourage people to
write similar (and better) personal application software in MVC. :)

-John





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