GDC D compiler for PocketPCs is here!

[Chad J]

John Reimer wrote:
> 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

Thanks for the info.

I was eyeballing the x50v on Ebay for its good price.  I was kind of 
counting on that slowness, but not from the OS :(.  I want to take 
advantage of 480x640 with the game I am coding, and I'd have a platform 
to test on and see first hand.  So I did the math - CPU is clocked %50 
faster, but 4x more pixels to push.  Not good.  It means my 240x320 at 
400 MHz probably won't be representative.  Maybe the intel graphics 
accelerator will help, though I'd have to do extra OpenGL work (oh 
well).  Wonder how much juice that gfx accelerator sucks.

But for personal use it might not be my first choice from what I'm 
reading (battery life GOOD, slowness BAD).  hmmmm...