#psion — Public Fediverse posts

a mate of mine has decided to try to get a UI working on ER6/#Symbian 6 on the #PSION NetBook. There are rumours that the Eikon source would be available if anyone could remember the encryption key, so it's not that.

I remember seeing ER6 on a NetBook without a GUI so it could be used to develop Transcend Mail (aka Vodafone Business Email I think) before we could get hold of Nokia 7650s. Transcend Mail was "sold" to another company along with the right to sue RIM over patents

#retrocomputing

Here's one for the encoding-bi-curious: Is there a UTF-8 <=> ASCII/Windows-1252 interchange encoding?

Imagine you're writing a text-editor for an operating system that predates UTF-8 (I don't have to imagine), and you can't do anything about what the OS stores and renders as text. It's hard-coded to Windows-1252[^1] and you're regularly transferring files to/from PC that are utf-8 encoded. What do you do?

The format in RAM *must* be CP1252, but it can be serialised to/from disk as UTF-8. The first part is easy, just convert any special characters that *are* available in CP1252 (e.g. "÷") to preserve those. But what about characters that have no representation? (see images)

I could convert graphemes to X/HTML entities (`&copy;`) on load but then when saving it would convert pre-existing X/HTML entities into UTF-8. Same goes with other encodings like C/C++ escape-sequences (`\x1B`) but I suppose that depends on what type of text you're editing.

[^1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows-1252

#psion #programming #unicode

I concur with this video - for the time these were amazing devices and all running off AA batteries. And they had an amazing scripted development language with full GUI support. With that keyboard you could do serious work on them and sync to your laptop later.

#psion #pda #handheld

The Best Computer Product Desi...

OK, lovely people. Here's a braindump of possible next #Psion projects.

Give opinions, or don't. I just need to get my thoughts out into the ether before I can make a decision.

🧵

Digging further in my Psion memories, here's an Internet Archive copy of my husband's old website about the genealogy program we wrote for the Psion 3&Siena palmtop computers. Called Geni then GenMVD. Website has screenshots and lots of info. https://web.archive.org/web/20040204104157/http://www-theory.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~mnd/export/geni/ #Psion #Genealogy #Technology #RetroComputing #90s

Browsing a recently digitised collection of Psion palmtop magazines this 1997 issue looked extremely familiar. And checking inside on page 15 there's a letter from me, extolling the virtues of my Psion palmtop (3a or 3c - can't remember for sure which I had then). Crikey! https://archive.org/details/palmtop-issue-13/ #Psion #RetroComputing #Technology #90s

But what if we made all buttons into plain text? And then all menus into plain text? What if every control was just plain text?? How good would that be? /s

#psion #retrocomputing

Thinking out loud this morning regarding "now and next" projects.

• Get #ECOBJ to a "good enough" 0.0.1 release.
• Switch to some investigative work of some sort. I miss researching and there's still so much to discover about #Psion kit.

I've also got a lot of write-ups that I want to. Get things noted down before I forget them.

#PocketMage is about to hit production: It's a long ways from a #Psion, but it's something new in the open hardware space that's a real hacker device and not hipster junk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF3dAwTap6Y

#openhardware

This won't get old for me.

The TopSpeed C compiler 3.10, running on #HaikuOS via emu2, compiling #EDisAsm, a native #Psion #EPOC16 app. The compiler also has to call a number of tools from the SIBO C SDK.

Small bugfix release for #CTRAN to deal with the "no EXTERNALs" issue.

https://codeberg.org/thelastpsion/ctran/releases/tag/0.1.1

#SIBOSDK #Psion

Look at me, adding good #UI to a 30-year old platform because I sure as hell can't find it in a modern OS

#ui #psion #retrocomputing #programming #retrodev

@mediaarchaeologylab if anyone in #Melbourne, #Boulder, or #Denver would like a working #Psion Organiser II model LZ64 lmk. I'll set one aside for you. I may have an extra manual and some 64 kb datapaks as well.

Finally, after months of eager anticipation from all corners of the internet, #CTRAN 0.1.0 is out.

Please, everyone, contain your excitement.

https://codeberg.org/thelastpsion/ctran/releases/tag/0.1.0

Seriously, though, I'm pleased with this release. It's working at least as well as the original, and better in quite a few ways. Plus, I've learned a lot about making my code "right", not just "work".

There's a bit more to do to get the user experience to where I want it to be. But the big challenge for me is to get automated tests working so that I can easily check a raft of edge cases. That's going to require quite a bit of refactoring, but it'll be worth it.

#Psion #SIBOSDK

Who remembers the #Psion organizer? I've got 12 of them 😭

#oldtech
@mediaarchaeologylab

Reusing an old Lenovo X220 running Windows XP as a #psion "dev" machine. All connected and working with my Psion 3A :)

Good morning!

I wish to make it known that, as amazing as #Psion were, there were times when they should have f**king known better,

This message is brought to you by Too Much Time In Their SDKs.

I just want to f*cking scream.

"""
Your post from writerDeck was removed because of: 'Keep it about writerDecks'

Hi /u/KrocCamen, You have violated rule 2: Keep it about writerDecks.

Kroc Camen: Yes, my post is about writerdecks. It's 2 months old and it's heavily upvoted.

r/writerDeck MOD: I don't doubt it, but that's also a PDA and not a writer deck.

Kroc Camen: Are you sure about that??? It's running EPOC32, a fully C++ OS that went on to become Symbian, the most popular mobile OS probably ever. It's a general purpose OS and I'm literally writing a writer-focused text-editor for it. It's categorically not a dumb PDA
https://codeberg.org/Kroc/nomad

r/writerDeck MOD: How could anyone be sure of that? You mentioned none of that in the post. Lol. Are you telling me that this device is a SINGLE-purpose device that does NOTHING other than provide a distraction-free environment to write?

KrocCamen: I'm surprised you're unfamiliar with the device. Anyhow, it's no less single-purpose than a device running a text-editor on top of MS-DOS or terminal Linux; that definition wouldn't hold water. Are Psions used by people for focused writing sessions? F*ck yes, it's one of their best capabilities given the best-in-class keyboard of this size. I've been writing a book and spent over 65 hours writing on mine. It looks like a write deck, it works like a writerdeck, it's a writerdeck.

r/writerDeck MOD: So...it's not been repurposed into a single-purpose, distraction-free device meant for just writing?

KrocCamen: That is _exactly_ what I use it for. It doesn't do anything else than writing.

r/writerDeck MOD: What you use it for, is not answering the question about what is is and I suspect you're smart enough to understand exactly what's being asked here. Weird that you refuse to just answer directly. Has the device been repurposed from its original functionality as a PDA to a single-purpose, distraction-free device that ONLY supports writing as a writer deck?

KrocCamen: Sigh. I'm autistic so you need to understand that what you have in your head for what "yes" and "no" means won't match what I think. There is no "yes" because you asked an impossible question. It's a Turing complete device, it can run any software, like any other Turing complete device. There is no such thing as a device that can "ONLY" support writing, that's not how computers work. It's a choice made by the user, not the device. An MS-DOS laptop is not a writerdeck by your definition, a Pomera isn't a writerdeck by your definition.

So to answer your question, Yes, it is used for and does what it is you're thinking but you aren't considering how deep that rabbit hole goes.

r/writerDeck MOD: My guy, read the description in the subreddit for what a writer deck is. Simplified, it is a single-use, distraction-free device that you use to write. No other apps, no access to music, clocks, email, web browser, game, etc. Just a writing program.

Last chance to answer the question. Have you repurposed an obsolete PDA into a writer deck, given the description of what a writer deck is? I don't care what you USE it for. I want your honest answer about what it IS.

KrocCamen: Yes, of course. I'm literally writing a book on it.

u/KrocCamen is permanently banned from r/writerDeck
"""

#writerdeck #reddit #psion

It's 2026 -- DOES YOUR HARDWARE ACCELERATED WINDOW MANAGER CAST SHADOWS ACCURATELY?? 1996 for comparison.

#psion #wayland #linux #retrocomputing

Must resist urge to correct typos and formatting in the 30 year old C++ header files for a dead operating system for dead hardware I'm working with. It's only my local copy, there is no canonical central repo to accept patches, nobody is going to benefit from this, stay your hand.

#programming #retrocomputing #retrodev #homebrew #psion

I think I'm going to try to improve path management in #CTRAN, make a release and then take a break from it. After that, most of the other TODOs are pretty small anyway.

I'm tempted to go back to my rewrite of ECOBJ.EXE, another tool in the #Psion SIBO C SDK. This one modifies 8086 Object Model Format (.OBJ) files for classes on EPOC16. I don't think it'll take me more than a few weeks to have something that works, even if it's not perfect.

#SIBOSDK #ECOBJ

BLOG: Make It Right - Next Steps With CTRAN

Rather than go straight into some of the more technical issues I've been facing, I've just written a quick recap on my rewrite of Psion's weird OO C preprocessor, and where I'm heading next with it and the rest of the SIBO C SDK.

https://thelastpsion.com/posts/make-it-right-next-steps-with-ctran/

#CTRAN #Psion #SIBOSDK

I always wanted to use a #Psion for real, meaningful work — even started writing a book on it ( #worldglass ) — but today I use it to write my statement to a judge to be read in a court of law to determine the future of my disabled child. It does not get more real and meaningful than this.

#psion #writing #retrocomputing #writerdeck

I think I've found another bug in #Psion #CTRAN's TASM generator. (NOTE: This post looks long, but just needs a bit of scrolling.)

If I'm right, my code already replicates the bug, but I'm almost certain it's wrong and I have no way to test it.

Let's take a look at this example class, snipped from a category file in VECTOR:

CLASS   vecdw   win
{
    REPLACE wn_init
    REPLACE wn_draw
    REPLACE wn_key
    ADD wn_beg_draw
    ADD wn_beg_draw_clear
    ADD wn_end_draw
    ADD dw_set_size
! ...snip from here...
}

When inheriting methods that aren't REPLACED, CTRAN adds in a NULL to indicate that this method can be passed through. It also adds an offset to show where the first REPLACEd method is (or just the number of inherited methods if none are being replaced).

From the above it will generate this C code:

{2,(P_CLASS *)ERC_WIN,sizeof(PR_VECDW),6,0x6b,19,0},
{
vecdw_wn_key,
NULL,
NULL,
NULL,
NULL,
NULL,
vecdw_wn_draw,
vecdw_wn_init,
vecdw_wn_beg_draw,
vecdw_wn_beg_draw_clear,
vecdw_wn_end_draw,
vecdw_dw_set_size
}

The five NULL entries are for five inherited methods between wn_key and wn_draw.

The TASM generator, however, does this:

 _TEXT segment byte public 'CODE'
GLDEF_C c_vecdw
 dw   2
 dw   ERC_WIN
 dw   (SIZE PR_VECDW)
 db   6
 db   06bh
 db   19
 db   0
 dw   vecdw_wn_key
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   vecdw_wn_draw
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   vecdw_wn_init
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   vecdw_wn_beg_draw
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   vecdw_wn_beg_draw_clear
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   vecdw_wn_end_draw
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   vecdw_dw_set_size
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0
 dw   0

Anyone else think that someone forgot to reset i to zero?

Sigh.

@captainblack Oh, that's sad to hear. I loved my Series 5. Even when I could afford a real laptop later, I used the Psion often because it was so practical.

Some years ago I bought the Planet Cosmo Communicator because I hoped to get this feeling and usability back, but Android is far from what Psion did.

#psion