18 Jul
2010
18 Jul
'10
8:50 p.m.
Hi,
On Sun, Jul 18, 2010 at 08:25:23PM +0100, Tony Duell wrote:
Speaking from personal experience, the HP200LX makes for a great mobile
serial terminal. I've used it with various machines, sitting behind the
rack (warmed by the machine exhaust fans *g*).
The Psion 5,
though, was all this as well plus a whole lot more; a
connected communication tool which could interchange files and media
with desktop PCs, sync with PC desktop PIM tools and more besides. It
was effortlessly better for me than anything Palm ever produced (and
yes, I owned several), less clever but far more practical than the
Apple Newton (and yes, I owned several), and made the PC-compatible
pocket computers (Atari Portfolio, HP LX and Omnigo, Poqet etc.) look
like pathetic also-rans.
The HP95LX/100LX (and I assume the 200LX, although I have never used one)
have 1 feature that is essential for me, and another that is highly
desirable.
The first is a good terminal emulator, with plain text, kermit and xmodem
up/down loading. For working on classic computers (which is what I do all
the time, of course), a machine that will fit in my pocket or sit on top
of a cardcage and which will let me grab data from a serial port, or work
as a consolr on a PDP11 or VAX and then let me upload any captured data
to another machine (any other machine -- kermit runs on just about
everything I own) is very handy. The other thing I need in a palmtop is a text editor.
Since I format text
with LaTeX if I want a formatted document, I don't need a word processor
on the palmtop, just a way of creating and editing text files. The HP's
hae a suitable editor, I think other palmtops do too.
I started writing my diploma thesis on the HP200LX with LaTeX, but later
moved to my Linux workstation as I started to include graphics.
The thing I most certainly do not want is automatic
synchronisation with
desktop PC applicators. It's extremely unlikely I use those appliations
anyway, and there is problably no documentation on how to transfer data
to/from anything else. I prefer standard transfer systems (Kermit,
Xmodem), I'll work out how to updata the files on the PC...
There seems to be a dominating mindset that sees mobile devices (like
palmtops) just as extensions of ones desktop. To someone like me, who
uses them as mostly standalone devices, with occasionally copying data
from/to them, that is rather silly.
Or course your needs are probably very different to
mine. But for me the
HP95LX does what I want. other machines don't. The one thing I miss is a
built-in programming lagnuage (you don't even get DEBUG on the European
models). But I can live with that.
Well, you can get various programming languages for DOS, among others,
the Borland compilers come to mind (and Turbo C++ works quite well on
my HP200LX).
Kind regards,
Alex.
--
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and
looks like work." -- Thomas A. Edison