Re: OT: Best PDA?
* Jonathan Gift <jgift@wanadoo.fr>, 20010321 12:20 +0100:
> I'm looking to make my debian more mobile by hooking up a PDA. Last I
> looked, the Palm OS dominated, only I didn't like learning its language.
> Is there anything else or is it worth learning after all? My primary
> use will be for making text notes. Or, let's say, adapting text notes
> made on the desktop and moved over.
I bought a Psion S5 second-hand a year ago. It has a keyboard, which is
very useful for taking notes, such as bibliography entries. Talking of
which, I write ASCII texts for LaTeX, same for the database (I use
"addressbook" on Linux). The database is rather poor but useable, 250
chars/field max., limited field number per database (less than 30 IIRC,
only if you limit the fields to a very small number of characters). They
say it's easy to do programming in OPL, I can't verify this 'cause I'm
no programmer.
If you decide for a Psion, my advice is to take either a S3{c,mx} --
there's an elvis port, so you can use the a vi clone! (The S5 port of
Vim is not really useable) -- or an S5{mx,mxpro), not the plain S5 I
have. The S3 has a better display, and you have Java on the S5* (not the
plain S5 I have). There's an ssh port for Java, that's why I mention it.
Do not buy a Revo, their built-in Akku has a design flaw. S5 machine
sooner or later all suffer from a "peeling" effect, meaning they're
loosing their color step by step. This is not vital, one would buy or
sell such a machine for less though. The same effect for the letters on
the keyboard. I've put transparent nail polish on the keyboard to avoid
this as soon as I bought the machine; it would be harder to sell now...
Though they say it's possible to mount the Psion (FAT16) on Linux
(there's even a .deb for the "plptools"), but I haven't managed to set
it up, the documentation is very poor. So I use minicom (Y-modem, batch)
to transfer files I've converted to plain text from the Psion to my
potato boxes (PC, Mac). Nice, high ASCII chars are converted on the fly.
You need a special cable, for modem connections also a special null
modem adapter.
Andre Berger [andre.berger@topmail.de]
Reply to: