Alexander Schreiber wrote:
> I use my trusty HP200LX for this job. Its a rather small handheld,
[snip]
> MS-DOS 5.0 in ROM (the last stable OS this company made).
It actually uses Datalight ROM-DOS -- a ROMable version of MS-DOS 5.0 with
most of the utilities removed. Someone (an IT tech, no less) once asked me
if I could run Windows 98 on my HP 700LX. My response was "You are joking,
right?" :)
200LXs make very nice portable terminals. I'm planning to add an RS232
buffer to mine before it gets connected to any unknown equipment. I've even
had the thing grab my e-mail and then dump it into cc:Mail. Lots of fun. And
all this with a 1MB RAM drive and an 8MB Sandisk Compactflash card...
> Has a bunch
> of built in applications, among them a terminal application with a
> very good VT100 emulation.
Do you mean Datacomm? I don't think it's capable of VT100 emulation; I've
never seen it, anyway.
> serial
> connector (but with special connector, you either need the original
> serial cable or you can rig your own if you know which side of a
> soldering iron gets hot)
You can use the FCI Minitek connectors (total pain to wire up without the
$200 crimper), but I wouldn't recommend using them. The Harwin 2x5 2mm-pitch
connectors look like they'd work, too.
> and a PCMCIA slot. Lives a few weeks of use
> on a set of batteries and seems to be almost indestructible.
Indeed it is - my 700LX has been dropped onto a thick carpet once, a thin
carpet once (broke the case latch) and concrete from 4ft in the air once.
And it still works. Anyone want to do that to a Palmpilot? I know of a Psion
3c that fell 3ft off a bookshelf (with the clamshell shut) and the LCD glass
got shattered!
> And it is "instant-on" - the power button just sends it to sleep. The
> only time I have to actually boot it (takes a few seconds) is when I'm
> programming on it and my code decided to branch off to neverland ...
I know the feeling. Linux coredumps, DJGPP SIGSEGVs, Windows bluescreens and
the HPLX just locks solid.
Later.
--
Phil.
philpem_at_dsl.pipex.com
http://www.philpem.dsl.pipex.com/
Received on Wed Nov 27 2002 - 16:09:00 GMT