GDC D compiler for PocketPCs is here!

[John Reimer]

On Wed, 16 Aug 2006 19:01:23 -0700, Chad J  
<gamerChad at _spamIsBad_gmail.com> wrote:

> John Reimer wrote:
>>  Well... that's unfortunate.  Pocketconsole is a very old piece of  
>> software  and doesn't support Windows Mobile 5.0.  So I guess the rest  
>> of us are  stuck?  I know of know working command line for windows  
>> mobile 5. :(
>>  -JJR
>
> Dang, I didn't know that.
>
> WM5.suckyness++;
>
> I already read that SynCE doesn't work with WM5 yet.  This all makes me  
> not like WM5.  I'm going to be looking at a new PDA soon, perhaps an  
> Axim x50v (like you have it seems), and I'll be avoiding WM5.  Hoping  
> for WM3 SE or something.

WM5 is a pain. Not bad. But not good either. Not really an improvement at  
all over the PPC2003 SE from the UI perspective, other than proper support  
for VGA displays. X50V is a good price now, especially since Dell is no  
longer making PDAs, so expect no more support. In the end, many users have  
been sorely dissappointed with them mostly because of lack of support from  
Dell concerning WM5. Probably more so since people were given the upgrade  
option to WM5 and found it buggy (on that device; my experience and  
disappointment with WM5 may be mostly due to the problems I've had with  
using it on the X50v).

Dell pretty much ignored everybody's complaints because the device was all  
but discontinued by then.  The stock OS provided with the X50v is the  
PocketPC 2003 SE.  It runs fine, but then its display stretches to the  
640x480 resolution and runs absolutely horribly slow (the GUI) despite  
having the uber-fast processor inside.  That's why I was so excited to try  
WM5 because not only was it supposed to run at the native resolution, but  
the screen performance was supposed to be fast (and it is indeed a huge  
improvement over the PPC 2003 SE screen which was designed for 320x200).  
WM5 also had persistant storage after backup battery loss.  A very  
important improvement over PPC2003 and earlier.  I enjoyed the  
improvements for awhile, but repeatedly got annoyed over some software  
glitches in the both the OS and software that didn't know how to play  
nicely with the new OS; this usually meant the battery ran dry far faster  
than expected because the software litterly sucked the juice out of the  
unit when it was supposedly "off" or in sleep mode.  Not a nice thing.

So it's your call.  My father actually has the X30 and PPC2003 SE.  He  
seems to have no troubles with it, and it's actually a bonus having the  
240x320 resolution in that case because you don't get any problems with  
poor support and slow performance as you would with the high resolution  
displays.  You might consider that or the X50 (QVGA version).  It's your  
call. :)

What still bothers me, though, is that the old Palm OS 5 devices (like the  
Tungsten C) had incrediblely fast UI's and seemed to perform simply and  
responsively at all times.  I miss that greatly, and it's always made me  
sore at MS for their inability to accomplish the same thing despite all  
the time and opportunity they've poured into the Windows Mobile systems.

-JJR