From: "M. Edward (Ed) Borasky" <znmeb@...>
Date: 2006-07-23T02:46:24+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby on Handhelds

gregarican wrote:
> Ruby will definitely run on the Zaurus. Last year I wrote a mobile CRM
> app that used Ruby and Qt/Embedded bindings. It was a nice result.
> Buying up a handful of refurb SL-5500's on eBay I could deploy a
> relatively sophisticated app on the cheap. But other handheld platforms
> aren't as easy. Newer Windows Mobile versions for example.
>
> The Zaurus is nice, but in the Western world Sharp has abandoned it and
> its essentially kaput. 
Sharp hasn't *abandoned* the Zaurus in the western world. They've simply 
made a business decision to focus on what's profitable. If someone 
developed, say, a CRM application for the Zaurus 6000, got an attorney 
and an accountant and made Sharp a credible business proposal, they 
would probably at least listen to it. I've forgotten the web link, but 
they do have a way of "adopting" projects like this.


> If the majority of handheld devices in active
> use are running Microsoft, Palm, and Symbian then not having Ruby
> available for them is a downside for me. And I'm not advanced enough to
> be able to port Ruby to these platforms myself :-(
>   
I went poking around in the Ruby 1.8.5 pre something source last night 
looking for something else and discovered that there are at least some 
hooks for Windows CE. You need the SDK, of course, but it looks like at 
least it's possible to get Ruby up and running on a Microsoft handheld. 
I'm not by any stretch of the imagination an embedded/handheld 
developer; I'm more focused on the other end of the spectrum.