
RePalm – Hardware Emulation of PalmOS - zdw
http://dmitry.gr/?r=05.Projects&proj=27.%20rePalm
======
dmitrygr
Cool to see my project-in-progress here. Happy to answer questions.

there's still a lot to do until I'm ready to produce hardware, but a lot
already works. The plan is to update the article as I go along, and eventually
open source everything once I'm convinced it works at least well enough to be
used.

~~~
steve19
Really enjoyed reading it thank you. I miss my Palm Pilots. I love the UI,
both functionally and the aesthetics.

~~~
dmitrygr
I'll have hardware you can build for $20 that will run PalmOS soon. Stand by.

~~~
steve19
I can't wait, thank you!!!

Is it likely that there would ever be alternative inputs than Graffiti? While
I loved Graffiti at the time, a ios/android virtual keyboard with a decent
capacitive touch screen would be nicer today.

~~~
dmitrygr
Palmos always supported other virtual keyboards. Sony had decuma for example.

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AshamedCaptain
There were already some reimplementations of PalmOS on top of other operating
systems.

e.g. PalmOS's own "Simulator" was a reimplentation of PalmOS on Windows. It
would contain a x86 ROM that would "thunk out" for some ROM libraries
(including the DAL) into separate .dlls that would do the equivalent Windows
calls. I always though that if I ever wanted to start my own PalmOS clone I
would start by looking at those.

Garnet VM by ACCESS was exactly the same thing except for Linux and Gtk+, and
compiled for ARM. Namely, an original PalmOS ROM blob with some libraries
implemented as external .so that would perform Gtk+ and Cairo (!!) calls.

Most probably, this was actually developed as part of the entire "PalmOS on
top of Linux" project that PalmSource actually still had when they were bought
by ACCESS.

StyleTap was a 3rd party commercial reimplementation. You can see it still has
some drawing glitches and differences versus an actual PalmOS. It is available
for both Windows (CE) and Linux (Android).

So I think Linux does make for an excellent host operating system, after all.

~~~
dmitrygr
All of those modified the os at much higher levels. RePalm runs UNMODIFIED OS,
with only DAL.prc replaced. Literally: use the T|T3 rom and you get a tungsten
t3. Use a Sony TH55 rom, and clie organizer runs as on a real TH55

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neilv
This work has great hack value. It's good to see people doing things like
that.

Also, the Palm devices were great little machines, with some interesting
technical tradeoffs for developers to push the very modest limits of the early
hardware, which made sense. I did an app for an early one, and also put the
API docs in more usable formats. I looked at the later Palm hardware again
recently, when I was deciding where to go for Linux handheld hardware after
Replicant, before I decided on PostmarketOS devices.
[https://www.neilvandyke.org/t-map/](https://www.neilvandyke.org/t-map/)
[https://www.neilvandyke.org/padr/](https://www.neilvandyke.org/padr/)
[https://www.neilvandyke.org/postmarketos/](https://www.neilvandyke.org/postmarketos/)

~~~
reaperducer
_Palm devices were great little machines, with some interesting technical
tradeoffs for developers to push the very modest limits of the early hardware_

I had a US Robotics Palm Pilot III. I did two exceptional things with it:

1\. Wrote the content for my second web site (sold for six figures) on the
roof of my apartment building after work using a Palm Pilot with the foldable
keyboard.

2\. Used the sync cradle to connect to the RS-232 port of an early GPS (around
1999-2000, I think) ripped out of a friend's Honda minivan. There was a
program for the Palm that could take B&W bitmap images of maps, then scroll
the map in sync with the incoming NMEA data. The hard part was that you had to
tell the program the coordinates of the northwest and southeast edges of the
bitmap so that it could scroll the correct amount.

\- The maps couldn't be too big because of the memory limitation of the Palm.

\- This was before Google maps. I think the only online map service was
Terraserver, and you couldn't download images, so I took screenshots of the
city overview, converted them to B&W and used those.

\- You could only have one map. No stitching.

\- No zooming.

Also, it took _forever_ to lock into the GPS signal, though I think this was a
problem with early GPS receivers and not a Palm issue.

~~~
Scoundreller
> 1\. Wrote the content for my second web site (sold for six figures) on the
> roof of my apartment building after work using a Palm Pilot with the
> foldable keyboard.

Tell more!

> forever to lock into the GPS signal

The semi-modern GPS would do estimates of where the satellites moved while
“off”. Today, wifi and cellular base stations help seed the location
precision.

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busterarm
There are so many tools for late 80s/early 90s cars/car-mods that _ONLY_ work
on PalmOS devices.

This will be a godsend to that community if it works.

~~~
liquid9
Can you please elaborate, any examples or explanations you can link?

~~~
busterarm
The Rtek ECU upgrade for RX7s. PLink for old Miatas. MMCD Datalogger for early
90s Mitsubishis.

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zoom6628
Amazing hack project .... and reading thru you see took only 2 weeks to write
CoretexEmu. Amazing. Seriously reading this stuff impresses the socks off me
and Im in awe of someone who can manage their time for writing enterprise
products like VMware, flying planes(author has 2), and hacking at this depth.
Kudos unlimited!!

~~~
dmitrygr
Thanks!

The secret is three-prong: I absolutely love doing this (despite this project
having no practical purpose), I have a FAANG job, and I have no family of my
own.

~~~
person_of_color
What does FAANG have to do with it?

~~~
dmitrygr
Question was as to how I have the time. FAANG job means that I don't work 80
hour weeks

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codezero
I was really convinced Palm was going to do something cool when I got my
Tapwave Zodiac which had an 8M ATI video card in it, which allowed some decent
3d mobile games to run. I was way wrong, unfortunately. I till love that
device though.

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ultrasounder
Wow!! I’ve been snooping around your webpage looking for updates every now and
then and here it is. I am actually am starting a custom CPU project for which
I might want to write an emulator and _this_ will help me a LOT. Thanks for
starting on this and sharing your progress. Appreciate it. Anybody reading
this, Dmitrys c codebase is a must read for anyone even remotely associated
with systems programming.

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DonHopkins
I wonder if he can get PalmJoint running again? "Beam me up!"

[https://twitter.com/xardox/status/997939444660523009](https://twitter.com/xardox/status/997939444660523009)

[https://donhopkins.com/home/PalmJoint.prc](https://donhopkins.com/home/PalmJoint.prc)

[https://donhopkins.com/home/PalmJoint/Src/PalmJointMain.cpp](https://donhopkins.com/home/PalmJoint/Src/PalmJointMain.cpp)

~~~
rhizome
Whatever a PalmJoint is, you appear to be the only person in Google who has
mentioned it.

~~~
userbinator
That's more because Google's search quality for old and obscure things is
abysmal (and has been going downhill for a while.)

(Incidentally, there's already an item on the front page currently discussing
this:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19762907](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19762907)
)

~~~
DonHopkins
Also because I just beamed it around to people at CodeCon, but couldn't ever
manage to land that distribution deal with Sony to ship it on every Clié,
alas.

My Pet Rock Remote Control for the PocketPC never got off the ground, either.
;(

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG0FAKkaisg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG0FAKkaisg)

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dsjoerg
Oh yay I can get Vindigo running on a device again

~~~
petersteinberg
Fancy seeing you here Dave. ;-)

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lostgame
I have recently picked up a Handspring Visor from a Value Village for $5.

It has been indespensible beyond words.

When I go to pick up my iPhone to take a note, I end up seeing my
notifications, scroll through Instagram for 5 minutes, until I get up and make
myself a coffee and forget not only to write the note but what the original
idea even was.

With my palm, I just pick up and write. These things are golden.

~~~
jplayer01
... that sounds like a neat idea.

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xattt
Does anyone know why Cobalt never made it?

