RE: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: Palm CNC

I'll jump in here. I am going to journey a bit OT, but I'm hoping to clear
up a bunch of stuff about using the Palm. If anyone else has more specific
questions about the palm, please ask me off list (unless Bill or Tim blesses
this to stay on list).

I've developed software that ran on that palm-os that controller medical
test equipment hardware. The palm basically has a 9600 baud serial port in
it. A couple of major issues I can see, however:

The serial port uses a lot of power (relatively speaking) so the batteries
in the palm won't last long (useless, of course, you are giving it external
power).

Timing: the palm-os is not a 'real time' os, so to speak. I saw a few
somewhat real time apps developed for the palm, but they were hardware
specific (i.e., only ran on a specific model of the palm).

That having been said, I'd like to make a further distinction... there are
no more 'palm pilots'. The original company that made palm-pilots was split
into two, a hardware seller and software seller. Now palm is not the only
one who produces handhelds that use the palm-os. Additionally, the proper
term is a palm handheld. I know, odd points to bring up.

Palm-os just recently purchased a defunct operating system called BeOS. One
of BeOS strong points was multimedia and realtime type applications.

I suspect that we'll see some of BeOS strong points being brough into the
palm-os. Additionally, linux can be run on most any of the hardware that
can run palm-os.

So, could a palm control a CNC? Sure, but there would probably have to be
some external hardware that the palm was sending high level commands to. On
the other hand, that may change soon.

Jason