Re: [zzdev] are there any Palm Pilot Developers around?

[eakeyes@xxxxxxx (Edward Keyes)]

>I think there were some - are they still here?

Yep, I'm still here, at least.

>if so - someone had decided that it was Too Hard to re-create ZigZag on
>a Palm Pilot.
>
>Fair enough.

Not really Too Hard, but just a situation with Different Design Needs.
A keyboard-based control system, for instance, is out of the question,
as, most likely, is the full interactive scriptability provided by
Perl.  But the core of the concept -- a complex N-dimensional database
environment -- is doable with a little care, IMO.  And in fact it may
work even better than on the desktop, since Pilot users are already
used to dealing with small simple chunks of data rather than big
monolithic applications and files.

>How about some system that will let you enter ZigZag cells into a pilot
>- and then later ingegrate or synchronize them with the ZigZag structure
>running on your PC?
>
>Your pilot could store a simple flat file database.  This could be kept
>in the ZigZag structure in it's own dimension.  a row of cells would
>start at home and run off poswards into the distance.  Using the power
>of ZigZag these could be linked to other cells in your structure in any
>way you liked, and could appear in ordinary dimensions with other
>ordinary cells.  Both the Pilot client and sych routine could be kept
>fairly simple.
>
>I'd really like the ability to makes notes on a pilot and then later
>integrate them easily into a ZZ structure.  I tend to lose bits of
>paper.
>
>ponder ponder.

Well worth pondering, indeed...  In fact, such a thing could be done
entirely on the server side: just designate one category of memos as
"ZigZag cells" and extract that info from the backup files.

The only slightly complicated element I can foresee is the ability to
match up cells to memos in future syncs.  The easiest thing to do,
which is very easy in ZZ, is to attach another dimension to the line
of cells in which you store the unique ID of each record that the
Pilot keeps track of for its own syncing.

- Edward Keyes
  eakeyes@xxxxxxx