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Python for the PalmPilot and Other Devices

Brian Lloyd Brian at digicool.com
Fri Jul 9 09:58:17 EDT 1999 
> You'd have to ask Brian Lloyd the original reasons for porting
> Python to his pathetic little 2MB CE device. ;-)  Now that CE's
> got 16-32MB direct from the factory, well, grins all around.

Well, to see if I could do it, of course :^) And because I happened
to have a CE device, and not a Pilot.

> The CE devices have some advantages.  There is a wide diversity 
> in models (palm sized, handhelds, even laptop sized units) and
> vendors (at least a dozen or so).  

They also have some disadvantages - for example, there is a wide
diversity in models (palm sized, handhelds, even laptop sized units)
and vendors (at least a dozen or so)...  :^)  Configuration mgmt
has been a big pain in the a** for the CE port, and it's only made
worse by the fact that everyone working on it has a pesky "real job" 
and tend to be very busy.


> The Win32 development heritage
> is reasonably well-understood, if often cursed.  The CE platform 
> includes a lot of built-in features (support for TCP/IP, sockets, 
> IrDa).  Microsoft is using its clout to move CE into automobiles 
> and cable set-tops.  True, CE represents a capitulation to a well
> known software vendor, but ...

He he - when I first embarked on that, I thought that the built in
features would be great help -- until I realized that there were
some missing features like, oh, most of the std C library that
Python takes for granted... :^)

Seriously though, the successive generations of CE devices have
been steadily piling more and more desktop win32 functionality
in - you could say that this is good or bad, but in the long run
it is probably good. Once CE finishes turning into NT in a handheld
(never mind that it will need to come with 256M of ram and need to
be powered by a carry-along car battery), we'll be able to use most
of the existing win32 port code pretty much unchanged :)

There are actually some potentially interesting opportunities for Python

on CE. For example, I believe that the upcoming sega Dreamcast video 
game unit will run CE as it's os, so it's not out of the realm of 
possibility that one could use Python for video game prototyping
or something.

I personally am waiting for a decent AutoPC so I can write a Python
script to drive me to work so I can get some shuteye on the way 
in... :^)


Brian Lloyd        brian at digicool.com
Software Engineer  540.371.6909              
Digital Creations  http://www.digicool.com
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