Tim - I was the guy who sent you the question about psion5/linux & Squeak the other night - I was inspired to correspond with you because of recent activity on the psion/linux mailing list from Alexander and others regarding a GUI. I have just joined the squeak list, so I guess there is no return now.
I am well aware that Squeak is not a GUI in the same way that X or Windows or the Macintosh desktop is, having used Squeak and Smalltalk for some time now. It did appeal to me as a substitute, on a PDA, for the functions of the graphic interface, windowing system and PDA applications all rolled into one. In that respect, the size of the system is not as relevant, since it includes far more functionality.
I am committed to experimenting with Squeak on the Psion 5 regardless of the direction of mainstream development of Linux on the Psion. As I mentioned in my private email to you, I would be interested in an EPOC32 version as well. I do have all the development tools from Symbian (and, ecch, Microsoft) to do this, but until now only lacked a worthy project. The only major issues in adapting existing C code to the EPOC32 environment is that it must be jacketed in C++ and that ALL memory must be managed through the kernel, and all code must be ROMable (meaning, for example, that no static or toplevel variables are allowed anywhere, unless they are constants initialized at compile time). The interpreter would have to be hand-edited to deal with this restriction, and later I would want to modify the interpreter generator in Squeak so as not to have to do this for every release.
Sorry to disappoint you, but I don't think the latest SDK from Symbian is divorced from Windows or Microsoft Visual C++. The recommended method of development is still to compile your application under VC++ and run/debug it on the included EPOC32 simulator under Windows. Then you recompile for the ARM processor using the GNU compiler suite included on the SDK and download it to the Psion, or Geofox, or Ericsson GSM telephone, whatever. Because of this methodology, Symbian did not develop native debugging tools like gdb that would allow for development without Windows directly on the EPOC32 target system. The SDK does include source code for many, but not all, the ARM development tools, which run in the Cygwin (UNIX on Windows) environment, so they can be built to run on Linux. Because I can swallow my rising gorge and use Windows if I absolutely have to, I can take some of the unpleasant work off your hands - I will probably bother you with some hopefully intelligent questions from time to time.
My goal is to have a Smalltalk system on a PDA complete with classes replacing the PDA apps, and hooks to interface with existing apps that can not be immediately replaced. The final result is a PDA that can be instructed to adapt to the user rather than the other way around. Ultimately, it would be nice to replace the ROM in my Psion with a direct-to-the-hardware Smalltalk system.
Ed
On Thu 25 Mar, Edward P Luwish wrote:
Tim - I was the guy who sent you the question about psion5/linux & Squeak the other night
Oh, how embarassing. I guess the good thing about senility is... um... the good thing... er, what was I talking about?
Anyway, if you've got some spare time and the interest, I'd say we can get this project on the move at last!
tim
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