Embedded Computing: August 2007 Archives
The Register report on the fact that Fujitsu Siemens will no longer produce PDA/GPS units as they perceive that smartphones will deliver the same functionality. I don't agree with this assessment as it seems that the sales of PDA/GPS units are starting to mushroom in Ireland. The most popular unit in Tipperary Institute is the TomTom One followed by the Garmin Nuvi.
If you can produce an attractively priced unit with an intuitive interface such as the TomTom One then you are on to a market winner. What needs to happen next with these units is that their API's need to be opened up so that communities and interest groups can develop their own add ons and populate easily the back end mapping database.
I first saw smalltalk in 1994 while working for Irish Permanent it was being used as part of their Os2 Warp platform. It was another 10 years before we met again in 2004. Since then it has formed a core part of my Phd research as POOSL uses it to describe its data constructs (using a freeware version of Cincom Visual Works). It came as a nice surprise to see that Patrick and John Collison are using it to build their auctomatic product.
I like smalltalk and its terse nature. The ability to exploit OO is naturally inherent. I don't know if I need a language for developing web apps but if I do I know where to look
