eQip Project Source Now Available

Eugenia Loli 2002-08-13 QNX 24 Comments

QNXZone reports that the eQip Project has recently gone open source and it is available via anonymous CVS. The eQip project supports several models of the HP/Compaq iPaq PDA, and rumour has it that the Sharp Zaurus has been running QNX on the test bench. Plenty of screenshots here.

About The Author

Eugenia Loli

Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.

Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli

24 Comments

2002-08-13 5:54 am

Anonymous
this looks really kool! cant wait to have a pda to install it on =)
2002-08-13 6:06 am

Anonymous
Anyone in the know coud explain why is the Zaurus available accross Europe except in France and Begium ?

—

http://islande.hirlimann.net
2002-08-13 6:19 am

Anonymous
I have to say that is the prettiest PDA GUI I have seen for a long while (not that I’ve used it, so can’t say for its feel). Makes me want to go buy an iPaq …
2002-08-13 8:27 am

Anonymous
Hi,

Right now I’m using opie (QT embedded based) and I am very happy with it, but I immediately became interested on eQip when I saw these nice shots 🙂

But, there is some stuff I couldn’t find in their web page (if it exists, could somebosy tell me where to find it?).

For example, can I synch with Linux/Windows?

Can I use any kind of avantgo/sitescooper for offline browsing?

How good is the web browser, calendar, contact?

How good is the character recogniser? Is it based on Graphity?

Does it have ebook reader?

I think there is an mp3 player. What about MPEG1/DIVX players?

Can I use it to watch photos from the CF?

Thanks in advance for your replies guys.
2002-08-13 9:59 am

Anonymous
cyberport.de sells the zaurus for 629 euro they ship abroad…
2002-08-13 1:29 pm

Anonymous
Did it get Linux-binary compatibility meantime..?
2002-08-13 2:09 pm

Anonymous
The thing that will make this a winner or a loser is what software it will have. No matter how great the OS software is what people care about.
2002-08-13 2:33 pm

Anonymous
No matter how great the OS software is what people care about.

I do not think there is a lack of software for QNX. You can compile pretty much any open source software on it, and i do know that the desktop version of QNX had pretty good software that came with it. It’s browser sufficed for most tasks, its no IE-killer but it did a nice job. The video player worked nicely and took minimal system ressources. They had GUI tools for configuring the whole system. If the PDA version of QNX is even remotely as good as the desktop version, i’d say that it should make for a VERY good operating system for PDAs.
2002-08-13 3:23 pm

Anonymous
While I have a wince based jornada, where is the list of compatible hardware? For instance, on wince, I can use my wifi card perfectly. (Addtron Tech wl11000-1)

Linux detects it when placed in a laptop, so is that a good bet?
2002-08-13 4:01 pm

Anonymous
Hi everyone

This isn’t ready for home use.

It doesn’t have any calender, or any PIM apps for that sake.

The software is about the stuff being shown in the screenshots.

Sign up the mailinglist and get the latest scoop on the status and help it progress.

No, we don’t have any linux binary compability.

For example, can I synch with Linux/Windows?

No, no PIM apps.

Can I use any kind of avantgo/sitescooper for offline browsing?

Sitescooper works in QNX, and as it generates normal HTML, this works fine, i’ve done it.

How good is the web browser, calendar, contact?

Web browser is Voyager. no cal, no contact.

How good is the character recogniser? Is it based on Graphity?

We have a nice plugin system, so you can easy port a new engine.

The current one is Merlin.

What is Graphity, didn’t find anything when searching on google.

Does it have ebook reader?

Nope

I think there is an mp3 player. What about MPEG1/DIVX players?

No movie players as of yet.

Can I use it to watch photos from the CF?

Yes, we have a photo viewer, not in the base distribution though.
2002-08-13 4:06 pm

Anonymous
While I have a wince based jornada, where is the list of compatible hardware? For instance, on wince, I can use my wifi card perfectly. (Addtron Tech wl11000-1)

Linux detects it when placed in a laptop, so is that a good bet?

QNX Only supports WiFi cards based of the Orinicco chipsets as of now.
2002-08-13 4:51 pm

Anonymous
Thanks, phearbear for the info. Your right, definitly not ready for the home, yet. But it is being added to my list of projects to watch!

Chris
2002-08-13 4:55 pm

Anonymous
Richard Fillion, you mentioned a desktop QNX? Where could I find more info on that? Always love to look into other os’s…
2002-08-13 5:14 pm

Anonymous
Version 6.1 is available here http://qnx.tucows.com/os.html“ http://www.qnx.com/nc/download.qnx“

2002-08-13 5:21 pm

Anonymous

6.2 – http://www.qnx.com/nc/download.qnx

6.1 – http://qnx.tucows.com/os.html

2002-08-13 7:27 pm

Anonymous

Andrew posted the good links, try it out, its a VERY slick OS, their posted requirements are higher than what they are in real life though. I’ve seen QNX (although maybe older than 6) run on a P166, and it ran like a dream.

2002-08-13 8:01 pm

Anonymous

Photon blows XFree86 out of the water. It is faster, uses less resources and looks better out of the box.

QNX is a great OS. It’s isn’t a BeOS, but it’s pretty close.

2002-08-13 11:12 pm

Anonymous

to phearbear:

The previous poster meant “Graffiti”, which is the standard handwriting recognition system for ALL PalmOS based PDAs. It also exists for PocketPC 2002 (MS calls it “Block Character Recognition”). Basically, you don’t really write naturally, you enter in letters and numbers one at a time using single and double strokes in specific areas for letters and numbers. There are, of course, special strokes for unique unctuation, accented letters, etc. and it’s been customized for non-Roman alphabet foreign languages (like Hebrew and Japanese). Palm is now being sued by Xerox for possibly infringing on a patent issued to Xerox some time ago on a similar pen based text-entry system called “Unistrokes”.

Graffiti was developed by Palm for the old Apple Newtons (before Newton OS 2.x) as a quick and easy data entry system for the most powerful PDAs available then. The handwriting recognition (HWR for short) on the original Messagepads was…inconsistent. People still used despite the dramatic improvements in Newton OS 2.x (when Apple ditched their licenced HWR and developed their own) simply because some could write faster with Graffiti than they could with their OWN handwriting.

Of course, Palm’s Newton Graffiti was much better than Palm Graffiti because you could reposition the letter/number areas anywhere, adjust their size, and (this one’s the best IMHO) SEE THE STROKES AS YOU WERE WRITING THEM. That one little feature reduces graffiti errors and speeds learning the strokes by a LOT.

Anywho, Apple’s spiffy new HWR tech for Newton OS 2.x has become “Inkwell” for MacOS X 10.2 and future versions. The company that developed the clunky old version that the original Newtons used has moved on to improve their product enough to be licensed by Microsoft for PocketPC 2002. I don’t know what Microsoft uses for WinXP Tablet Edition, though I’ve heard it’s quite good.

I did not know that there were open source HWR projects, can anybody direct me to some? Or at least tell me where/how they are being used?

–JM

2002-08-14 12:11 am

Anonymous

Hi JM.

Thanks for the info , I am aware of Graffiti

The Merlin keystrokes is.. kinda.. graffiti.

I don’t know the Merlin page in my head.

Also, handhelds.org have ‘xscribble’ and ‘xstroke’.

I myself looked a bit on porting it (xstroke is just a ‘improved’ version of xscribble), but the source where horrid and the stroke recognition wasn’t as good as Melin imho.

XStroke/Scribble is used in the Familiar distributions.

2002-08-14 2:15 am

Anonymous

what else can I say…8^)

Used qnx 6.0, 6.1… hoping to install the latest 6.2. Wishing more apps get ported.

I’ve just installed Linux SuSE. Very very nice… but have to say, not as easy as qnxOS… and qnx does have a very pleasent community.

2002-08-14 3:54 am

Anonymous

Yeah – merlin is very much like Palm. I belive that is why it was written, to give the AgendaVR Linux based PDA a simular user interface to Palm.

There is a link in the links area of the eQip homepage that shows all the strokes Merlin will understand.

Please pop over to #eqip on irc.qnxzone.com if you ever want to chat about QNX on PDAs.

2002-08-14 5:14 am

Anonymous

Groovy Baby, Yeeeeah!

2002-08-15 5:29 am

Anonymous

> Photon blows XFree86 out of the water. It is faster, uses less resources and looks better out of the box.

Does anyone know if you can run photon on linux?

2002-08-15 8:34 am

Anonymous

Nope. Why would you bother? Just use QNX.