[Vm-dev] Squeak on an Android tablet, first impressions

[Dimitry Golubovsky]

Hi,

I finally got an actual tablet (Pandigital Novel 9") with Android 2.0,
and tried to install the apk file from the SqueakVM project repo.

I haven't tried to rebuild it yet.

It runs. Not to say it is very fast (CPU is 800 Mhz), but seems usable.

Application window size seems to be fixed, and does not seem to be expandable.
When the tablet changes orientation, Squeak seems to somehow react to
it, but previous window remains on screen overlaid by the new window..
Save and Quit does not work: error pops up that disk is full. I
inserted a 8G SD-card, and it is mainly empty. When Quit is selected
in the menu, and I answer No to the "Save changes before quitting"
popup, nothing happens, Squeak continues running. In fact, I couldn't
stop it at all, it shows up in the list of running apps even after
"force stop" in applications manager.

Anyway, great job.

I realize this port is incomplete, but I am practically interested to
improve it, so will try to rebuild it and make modifications.

Is anybody else working on it these days?

Thanks.

PS Unlike mentioned in the recent comment for the Issue 1, holding
Menu button does not bring soft keyboard.
BTW I wass thinking about writing a Morph which displays buttons with
letters or digits, and sends key events to whatever ActiveHand
keyboardFocus points to. Works on PC; would it be an easier way to
enable keyboard input independently of the problem with Android
keyboard?

PPS I think a new theme is needed for mobile screens, with larger
controls, and maybe additional buttons for "doit" and "inspect" on
window titlebar. Anyone tried?

-- 
Dimitry Golubovsky

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