Re: Tablets? - OT


"J French" <erewhon@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:43f5fb7e.95624494@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Fri, 17 Feb 2006 08:43:16 -0600, "Ralph"
<nt_consulting64@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

<snip>

I am glad to hear that last part - "... preferably a 'main menu' of
Buttons
...".

I have been creating such an animal as a quick 'n dirty solution for
ported
desktop applications. A sort of universal monitor - combination splash
screen and options dialog - which essentially just buys time to figure
out
where it is and what it was doing ...
" MyApp <pretty icon>
[Continue with original data...]
[Seek new connection...]
[Save all and quit...]
[...<no buttons - just info>]
"
The actual dialog/options presented would depend if the app came out of
hibernation, paused, startup, or shutdown...

But I considered it an ugly kludge. The result of a Monday morning
deadline.
Maybe I was on to something and need not be so embarrassed. <g>

Smart - my 'opus' has fast logon
- a button with the text 'Fast'
- when I review the history of the system, it makes me crack up
laughing

Have you taken a look at the .Net-based support yet? I was frankly rather
surprised at the high degree of COM-based support in the latest TablePC
SDK,
considering MS's current desire to stomp-out VB6 development. Of course
all
the examples assume you will be using it with FoxPro.

I had to port just before XP embedded came out
- the main reason for porting was so idiots could maintain the code
- the other reason was the hardware was getting scarse, although I
suspect that someone in the client was getting a bung for re-tooling.

[Why Billy keeps cuddling FoxPro developers with an installed base of
twelve
over an installed-base of millions for VBc has me completely mystified.
<g>]

Probably a small and favoured development team
- let's face it, if you had an income of billions, would you sack the
tea lady ?

Actually a company I worked for a long time ago, where a cadre of very
good guys assembled around me, and we kicked jack sh*t, sacked the lot
with huge pay offs a couple of years ago.

- but I would not be surprized if PA and BG kept a small team running

I have to admit that the .Net toys and the default connectionless aspect
of
ADO.Net makes TablePC apps a bit easier to manage if written from
scratch. I
tried to create my 'universal monitor' as a .Net component - results so
far
have been rather disappointing. To put it mildly...<g>

I've not played with .NET, I understand what it is about, mainly
getting away from the Intel instruction set

I did not realize that you were a Touch Screen afficionado
- I've been playing with the b*ggers since 1990, when I took over a
task that 8 other SW Houses had failed on ( somewere were big names )

It is interesting stuff

For my Windows port I re-wrote Windows, in mainly VB5 (safer)
- just painted the lot, and made the thing work procedural, like it
does in the guts anyway

Perhaps, drop me a line, you can easily find my web page


I have been fascinated with them since I worked on a GRiD pad (MS-DOS/C)
back in the eighties.

It was a rather simple device for insurance/annuity salesmen. It turned out
that the most popular feature I wrote was a couple of games ('Bonk the
Gopher' and, ghod-forgive me, Solitare) and the 'Notepad' (an advanced
version of Etch-n-Sketch). The salesmen would give the box to the kids to
play with, to keep them quiet, while he talked to the parents and kept notes
on a yellow legal pad. <g>

I always enjoyed the technology but for some reason have found it difficult
to find anyone to pay me to play with it.

I jumped on the "Pen Windows" (or was it "Windows Pen"?) bandwagon early on.
Went to a couple of conferences, hung out a shingle - but no one came. I
tried playing with Palm, &etc. But became overwhelmed with the limitations
and the endless variety of new devices and OSs. Besides who needs
yet-another Task/Appointments/Phone Book. Even when I dumped my apps into
public domain, the only thing they ever downloaded was a BioRhythm program
and an app that calculated the temperature from cricket chirps. <g>

But I think all the pieces are finally in place with the TabletPC.

We'll see.

-ralph


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