The only barrier to doing this is the will to do it. I for one am all for it
and would LOVE to help on such a project if one was started.

Aside from the bindings to which GUI framework would be used (QT has an
implementation that writes directly to the frame buffer, as does GTK -- I
believe, what about FOX?) the development of the object model, GUI,
applications, etc could all be done without reference to a PDA.

I went through three generations of Newtons before their ultimate demise
(and I still use by 2100) and have been waiting for a replacement that had
the elegance of a newton with modern networking functionality. The main
barrier to acheiving that however is the lack of an open source/free source
version of a handwriting recognition algorithm (not grafitti or Jot like but
a real printed recognizer). If that can't be found then we still need
something like grafitti or Jot (and this may exist).

Count me in if any one wants to get started on this!!

Steve Tuckner

-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Thomas [mailto:Dave / PragmaticProgrammer.com]
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2001 8:16 AM
To: ruby-talk / ruby-lang.org
Subject: [ruby-talk:27066] Musing



Say a PDA such as this:

   http://www.sharpplace.com/product.asp?sku=1865193

came with Ruby, but not just as a standalone application.

Instead, that Ruby is used as the overall scripting language, much
as VBA is on Windows boxes. The PIM, e-mail, browser all support Ruby,
using a consistent object model.

  Inbox.add_observer(:mail_arriving) do
    Display.popup "New mail"
  end

or

  SMS.add_observer(:sms_msg) do |msg|
    from = msg.sender
    entry = Address.find(from)
    if entry
      Browser.new_frame(entry.homepage)
      from = entry.first_name
    end
    Display.popup("SMS from #{from}")
  end

Why use Java for scripting a device like this? Ruby seems far more
natural. How would we make this happen?


Dave