"N810 Linux PDA": PIM, Text Editor and Software Installation - maemo.org

janozaurus | # 1 | 2007-12-29, 02:23 | Report

Hi Folks,
I got the N810 Internet Tablet and I'm going to use it as a "N810 Linux PDA". I know people have asked for PIM and text editiing before, but searching through this forum, the wiki, maemo.org and google doesn't provide that many answers for OS2008.

I learned there are two simple ways to install additional software

Installing a program from http://maemo.org/downloads/OS2008
Adding a repository, e.g. from http://www.gronmayer.com/it/index.ph...&system=maemo4 and install stuff via the program manager

Both can done by clicking on a link (green arrow) to an "install file" from the tablet. The latter is preferable. Am I right so far?

For offline PIM, there's only GPE 2.8 so far. We can expect to see Pimlico/O-Hand. GPE seems more advanced/stable. (I have used GPE 2.7 on OpenZaurus and except for some bugs in Calendar it was acceptable for me.) What are your PIM experiences? Anything usable on OS2008?

There's no GUI Text editor yet for OS2008.

Do people here plan to use the N810 or N800 for PIM and note taking (plain text)? What are your software choices?

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SethCohn | # 2 | 2007-12-29, 02:59 | Report

Originally Posted by janozaurus View Post

Both can done by clicking on a link (green arrow) to an "install file" from the tablet. The latter is preferable. Am I right so far?

Correct, because once installed with the repository, it's easier to update later.

Originally Posted by

For offline PIM, there's only GPE 2.8 so far. We can expect to see Pimlico/O-Hand. GPE seems more advanced/stable.What are your PIM experiences? Anything usable on OS2008?

The Palm/Garnet PIMs are likely another serious choice... they work, work well, and you can sync to another machine, etc...

Originally Posted by

There's no GUI Text editor yet for OS2008.

Isn't a GUI text editor a 'word processor'? (IE Abiword, etc..)

How about a note taking app, such as Notecase?
http://notecase.sourceforge.net
Newly on 2008 in fact... but crossplatform just in case...

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jurop88 | # 3 | 2007-12-29, 07:49 | Report

pygtkeditor had already been released, search the forum for that or for khertan, the develeper

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scottfranklin | # 4 | 2007-12-29, 14:34 | Report

Originally Posted by janozaurus View Post

Do people here plan to use the N810 or N800 for PIM and note taking (plain text)? What are your software choices?

That was 1/2 my plan. In my dreams I use the N810 to give talks, but I haven't gotten the usb-to-vga issue resolved yet.

Since my desktop & home computers are Macs, I'm syncing iCal w/Google calendar. 1-way synching w/GPE calendar is straightforward; I had 2-way synching w/erminig working before upgrading OS2008, but haven't re-installed (yet).

I'm vacillating between xournal and maemopad+ for notetaking. One big drawback is that you have to write in landscape mode, so my palm is always drawing something in the lower right corner!

Gnumeric for spreadsheets. Haven't gotten pygtkeditor or Notepad yet, but am working on it.

scott

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janozaurus | # 5 | 2007-12-29, 15:27 | Report

Originally Posted by SethCohn View Post

Isn't a GUI text editor a 'word processor'? (IE Abiword, etc..)

A hardly use word processors (I'm a LaTeX guy), I only need a plain text editor, preferably one that plays nice with the built-in keyboard and stylus (for copy/paste, scrolling, collapsing of paragraphs, ...). I believe the N810 keyboard is not good enough for emacs or vim (though I haven't tried).

I've stumbled upon note taking application but most use a database (instead of flat plain text files) or allow graphics (stylus sketches), and I don't know how to export them to the real world (read my desktop). I don't use anything like tomboy.

On my Zaurus, which has a slightly better keyboard, I've written blog post and letters in gpe-edit (like the Gnome editor gedit) and rsync'ed to my desktop, which worked pretty well for me.

cvmiller | # 6 | 2007-12-29, 17:24 | Report

Originally Posted by janozaurus View Post

I've stumbled upon note taking application but most use a database (instead of flat plain text files) or allow graphics (stylus sketches), and I don't know how to export them to the real world (read my desktop). I don't use anything like tomboy.

My 2 cents: I have to agree. I just tried notecase, and I can't even get it to import a plain text file. After having many pda-like machines (Newton, Zaurus, and now n800) I have found plain text is the best for portibility.

I just rolled back to OS2007 for leafpad (a nice GUI-based plain text editor). I have tried pygtkeditor, but found it too slow for editing large (read 200k+) text files. Probably great for small file software development.

Perhaps leafpad or a gedit-like app will be ported to OS2008.

Craig...

clach04 | # 7 | 2007-12-29, 18:58 | Report

Originally Posted by cvmiller View Post

... I have found plain text is the best for portibility.

Amen to that! I ended up writing a script to export Outlook Notes to get the plain text out when I stopped using Notes under PocketPC. It shouldn't have to be that much work! If you have plain text you can at least use vi/vim/more/less :-)

I ended up using a (Windows) application called Tombo (not TomBoy) http://tombo.sourceforge.jp/En/ which I have run under Wine for Linux support. Not so useful for the NIT though....

I ended up writing a cross platform version http://code.google.com/p/pytombo/wiki/WxTombo but with the new versions of wx it only partial works now (menus missing). I'm in the process of re-designing the core library and moving to a GTK gui but I do not yet have something ready for prime time so it is pretty much vaporware right now.

I do have a web based search tool for it though and the code is available for that http://code.google.com/p/pytombo/wiki/WebTomboGrep -- it uses python and because the Python runtime on the NIT is missing BaseHttpServer it will probably need a few of the standard library files copying across.

I do not yet have a NIT though (still waiting for the Nokia fairies to visit me) so at the moment I'm not looking into getting it Nokia ready.

Originally Posted by cvmiller View Post

... I just rolled back to OS2007 for leafpad (a nice GUI-based plain text editor). I have tried pygtkeditor, but found it too slow for editing large (read 200k+) text files. Probably great for small file software development.

Someone has ported Scite (needs packaging), I personally love Scite on the desktop. It should be worth a look.

Chris

PinCushionQueen | # 8 | 2007-12-29, 19:11 | Report

For a simple text editor what's wrong with the builtin NOTES app? That's what I'm using - it will do both formatted and simple text.

miastrong | # 9 | 2007-12-29, 19:31 | Report

I learned there are two simple ways to install additional software

1. Installing a program from http://maemo.org/downloads/OS2008
2. Adding a repository, e.g. from http://www.gronmayer.com/it/index.ph...&system=maemo4 and install stuff via the program manager

Both can done by clicking on a link (green arrow) to an "install file" from the tablet. The latter is preferable. Am I right so far?

which repository has PIM for the n810 OS2008?

janozaurus | # 10 | 2007-12-30, 14:31 | Report

Originally Posted by miastrong View Post

which repository has PIM for the n810 OS2008?

Go [url=http://www.gronmayer.com/it/index.php?lang=en&system=maemo4]here[/url ] as soon as the site is up again

Look for a repo that mentions GPE (a PIM suite). Look for the other repos mentioned as required (I believe it's maemo-hackers). Click both green arrow links (from the IT)

open Program Manager and look for contacts, calendar, and so on.