One was started but it never really got very robust. If you have WWW access,
you can find it via http://www.eit.com/mailinglists/zoomer/zoomer.html. Lots
and lots of other Zoomer info is available there, including a hypertext archive
of this mailing list.
Any volunteers to create a really good FAQ? I'd be willing to work with you to
make it available both as a text file retrievable from the zoomer-list archives
and a hypertext file accessible on the WWW.
> 2) I've heard mention of an OS called Penright! for the zoomer, what are
> its advantages over the GEOS-zoomer implementation, and where is it
> found?
There are some hooks for it, but I'm not aware that it ever shipped with an
(AST) Zoomer.
> 3) I've also heard mention of Graffiti for the zoomer, where is it found,
> and how does it work (I heard its HWR is superior to anything else)?
It was announced recently and they're taking orders. I'm not sure if they're
shipping yet -- I haven't gotten my copy yet :-( -- but you can call
1-800-881-PALM to place an order.
> 4) can the GEOS on the zoomer run regular PC-GEOS 2.0 aplications -could I
> port the GeoCalc and GeoWrite to the GEOS on the zoomer?
Sort of. I brought over the Geoworks Ensemble 2.0 applications onto my flash
memory card and regularly use GeoCalc. It's ssssllllooooowwww but functional
for simple template-oriented uses. I use it to capture travel expense reports
on the fly. GeoWrite wouldn't be terribly useful without Graffiti. GeoDraw is
kinda neat but its slowness on a Zoomer makes it somewhat unattractive. I
haven't done much with GeoFile, but I think it might be pretty interesting to
use for data capture as long as you develop the databases or templates on a
regular PC. I was not able to get GeoComm to work at all, but didn't try very
hard.
I don't have a concise set of instructions for how to get the Ensemble stuff
brought over to the Zoomer, but basically you create a parallel \GEOWORKS
structure on the flash or SRAM memory card and then load most -- but not all --
of the Ensemble stuff into that structure. Then you link the structures by
modifying your GEOS.INI file and you need to do other modifications to GEOS.INI
in order to provide initialization settings for the Ensemble applications.
I'd love to collaborate with someone on writing instructions on how to set up
Ensemble apps on a Zoomer. I don't have time to do it all, but I have some
experiences to share and of course would make space in the zoomer-list archives
and WWW server for the results.
> 5) where's the best place to get zoomer add-ins?
I use a SunDisk/Seagate 5MB flash card. I print with a Canon BJ10e bubble jet
and a serial-to-parallel converter (which is a bit larger than the Zoomer
itself!). And I have a ViVa 14.4k pocket modem. I bought them all at random
computer stores around here -- I don't know of a good place to get Zoomer
add-ins specifically. Seems to me that both Radio Shack and Casio didn't bring
out the list of accessories that were promised in their literature.
-- -Brian Smithson brian@grot.starconn.com