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Handheld Redux

2007-05-11: Handheld Redux - Computer Stuph

Despite occasional rants, I am actually a reasonably pro-Microsoft guy. While I may dislike some of the effects that their practices have on the industry, it is hard for me to ignore the high quality of much of their software. But their efforts in the handheld market are almost diabolically bad.

There have been several instances in my career where I picked a Microsoft solution because I felt it was the safest solution. Ironically, it is exactly in those instances that Microsoft turned out to provide not only an inferior solution, but a solution that I am convinced was designed by a sadist bent on glibly screwing the hapless Microsoft fuckwits that have no other choice.

I have several projects in the pipe that all coincidentally require handheld software. I have spent the past week laboriously digging through the mess that it the handheld world. The current state of handhelds is remarkably like the early mainframe days of computing. Everyone's everything is proprietary, binaries don't work across machines, and hell, your code doesn't even compile well across platforms. Java? Haha. I laugh at you. The reality is that picking a handheld is like picking the Wii vs. the PSP.

During this process I have been leaning pretty heavily towards a Windows Mobile platform. When I checked out pda-programming forums, the Windows boards had n^2 more posts. The Windows platform was consistent, had only one viable development tool, and could be trusted to survive.

Palm? Palm split into two...you had the people with the name rights to "Palm," and the people who owned the PalmOS source code...The Palm (TM) people may be moving into Windows Mobile devices, and the PalmOS was bought by a Japanese firm called Access who renamed it to Garnet, and while they're releasing it for now, will ultimately be retiring it for their own Internal OS...In other words, PalmOS is deader than Coke.

And then you have good ol' Linux. Linux on the handheld is just like Linux on the PC. It's a big mess of dudes hacking together shit. Linux doesn't even have a foothold in the market, and it's already fragmented. You have GPE, you have QTopia (PDA edition), you have QTopia Core (framebuffer only), and you have Opie (A fork of QTopia's GPL code). This is enough to scare away even the most stalwart amongst Linux dudes.

But the thought of Windows Mobile makes me ill. I'm sure it's better than CE, but it's an all-or-nothing endeavour. If I use Windows Mobile as the handheld, I cannot sync with Linux. I cannot develop under Linux. I cannot do anything with any machine I am familiar with. Unless I have Developer Studio installed on the machine, unless I have the installed commercial tools, I cannot write software or even communicate with the device.

And it goes back to the command line. It goes back to SSH. It goes back to the fact that once I get a command prompt on a Linux box I can do anything. Once I get that command prompt I have complete and total control over the machine.

So I ordered the TDS Recon from SDG Systems. Within two hours of receiving the unit, I had an SSH connection to it, and had compiled a C++ app (with GUI) onto it.

I have SQLite. I have vi. I have total control over the system. I don't have wizards, or high-level languages, or abstracted bullshite...But I have almost atomic control over the device. If there's an API I need, I know that I could port it over given a bit of time. Nothing is impossible.

If you are a programmer who is familiar with Linux, and are looking to delve into PDA programming, I recommend you contact SDG Systems. While the TDS recon device is a bit pricey, I guarantee that this company will impress you. When I called their number I spoke to a developer. The guy on the phone knew the hardware, he knew the software, and he spoke candidly about its strengths and limitations. I was on the phone with a guy who not only would, but *could* solve any problem I had. This, my friends, is the meaning of support. Some random script-jockey at Microsoft is not support. Support is being able to talk to a talented developer on the phone for the low-low price of giving them business.

Linux isn't socialism, it is good ol' fashioned capitalism.

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