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