> Sounds like you didn't have fun as a beta-tester :-(.
Nope, testing 2.0 was not exactly what I would call a cheerful
experience. 1.0 and 1.2, most certainly. 2.0, I got the distinct
impression that they were just fed up with how late it was, so they just
sent it out the door and figured on revising it as they got user
complaints. That and all the time they had us waste on trying a whole
new bunch of gosh-neat-whiz-bang graphics drivers that they wound up not
using. But, anyhew . . .
> I have no direct experience with the beta-test versions of GEOS/Ensemble 2.0.
> I saw an early demo of it, and it did look pretty flakey. However, the
> production version seemed stable enough to me -- on par with Ensemble 1.2
> and most Windows apps, in my experience.
More than likely, as I mentioned, they probably fixed bugs as they got
reports from customers. It is, unfortunately, a growing trend in the
software industry.
> I've gotten most of the Ensemble 2.0 apps to run on a Zoomer, and the Zoomer
> is essentially based on GEOS 2.0. They run slowly, due to the limited CPU power
> available on the Zoomer, but they run as long as you bring along the necessary
> Ensemble libraries.
This is where I must admit that my face is red: I'd been told and
believed all this time that the Zoomer ran under something of an updated
GEOS 1.2 kernel. After I insered my foot here, I pulled it out and did a
little double-checking. Lo and behold, it runs under GEOS 2.0. *Sounds
of whacking Zoomer manual against forehead and muttering, "Stupid,
stupid, stupid!"*
So, anyhow, now that I'm writing with something vaguely resembling a
clue, yes, I'd imagine it is possible to move Ensemble 2.0 applications
over to the Zoomer. Time for me to re-install that mess and move a few
things over. After I get a PCMCIA RAM card or three, of course . . .
(and let's hear it for the Zoomer designers for only giving us one card
slot, so we have the choice of storage and a modem hanging off OR a handy
modem but not much space to put what you download; given that the Newton
has a similar problem, if someone could figure out how to integrate a
PCMCIA modem and RAM card, I think they'd make a killing). Would be neat
to get Comms running on this little thing. I'd been joking with folks
about using my Zoomer for checking in on the Nets while on the road, and
now that doesn't seem like such a silly notion after all!
> >From what I read on zoomer-list, many people have had good luck running
> GEOS 2.1 apps on their Zoomers. I'd love to hear the details on each app --
> what libraries were needed, what did or did not work, what else broke, etc.
Ditto here.
Patrick