Nokia 770
(moved here from the Tclkit Mobile page)
2005-11-23 jcw A new PDA-class appliance is the Nokia 770 [L1 ]. I've succeeded in getting Tclkit 8.4.11 built for it (Linux, X11, ARM), but for some reason Tk is not agreeing with it yet. But it's a start, Starkits, Metakit, Wikit, SDX, Ratcl all seem to work. For binaries and a snapshot of an N700 running a copy of this entire wiki locally (via httpd), see http://www.equi4.com/pub/tk/arm/ . I hope someone can figure out how to get Tk working, it's beyond me...
2006-01-10 stevel We now have a tclkit 8.5 (including Tk) for the 770 ... for the moment it's at http://forum.digitalsmarties.com/tcl770 - thanks to Jean-Claude Wippler, David Zolli, Mike Doyle and especially Meredydd Luff? for his brilliant detective work in tracking down the Xft issue that was causing Tk to crash the 770.
2006-02-03 jcw - Great joint effort! I've added that Tclkit build to the Tclkit repository, see [L2 ], it's mentioned under Linux on the Tclkit download matrix at [L3 ]. There is one issue, in that it's stored in gzip-compressed form like all other tclkit builds, but this is probably not the most convenient way to get it onto the Nokia 770. We'll probably want to look into their Debian'ish packaging scheme at some point...
As Steve Redler noted, tile72, tkimpg and tkpng kits run on the n770 providing you link from lib/armv5tel to /lib/armv5tejl.
2006-02-03 SRIV Starting with todays release, all Whim window manager starkits will include support for the N770. I'll be working on some usability enhancements to make it easier to use in a touchscreen environment. I find that all the desktop apps (starkits) run pretty well on the N770, but memory is limitied, so I plan I working to use one interp for Whim and one interp for all starkit apps.
Tckit is now listed in the Maemo website Application Catalog [L4 ]. Seems to be gone from that list (2006-09-20)
2006-03-16 BAJ I've been writing a little time tracking application for my n770 and seem to have found a serious bug in tclkit on it:
expr 661.0/100.0 -6.6099980926513675
Some division calculations, but not all, give the negative of the expected result (actually the negative of something close to the expected result).
2006-04-24 KBK Tcl 8.5's double-to-string and string-to-double conversions were not aware of the N770's unusual "middle endian" floating point format. Fixes are in progress (the immediate reported problem is fixed, but we are aware of some remaining issues in the binary command that will be fixed prior to release).
2007-01-02 Any news on the progress of the fix? I still seem to be having problems with regard to that issue... Also, I wondered if the same Tclkit binary would work on the OS-2006 version for the n770?
2006-03-30 SB, Just a comment on the device itself: I have one of these, and I find it pretty useless in its default configurations. I think it is a waste of money. I originally thought it was cool of Nokia to launch a Linux-based PDA, but after some days I had to realize that I can't do anything except surfing on the internet with it. I haven't been able to get tcl/tk installed and would be happy if somebody cared to list the steps needed to get tcl/tk onto a vanilla system. I am hoping that some tcl/tk may make it more useful. My old Yakumo Alpha has more features than this buddy (except for internet access, but I want to use it as an organizer and not as a computer replacement) and it runs for 8 hours.
2006-03-30 SRIV I agree, it sucks out of the box. The Hildon interface requires all apps be modified to take advantage of it. Dbus reboots the unit if you kill certain apps to replace them on the fly. Its a pain. The unit becomes a powerful workstation after I replace Matchbox with Whim, use xvkbd for the on screen keyboard, and tclkit as the core to run all my own apps.
2006-06-08 EH have released eTcl binary for arm-linux. Like on all other platform, this is a fully static single executable, with no external dependencies, so it should run on any arm-linux system (kernel>=2.6). Tested only iPaq hardwares running linux, but feedbacks on (trying to) run it on Nokia 770 would be much appreciated. Pretty large executable (6Mb) since compiled with support for all extensions (Tls, scene (OpenGL widget), pixane (with support for png, jpeg, etc...), sqlite, ...).
2007-04-27 PPK: Did a short test of eTcl binary for arm-linux on my Nokia 770 (OS version 2.2 'gregale'). It seems to run, even Tk works, but has one serious limitation: The soft keyboard will not show up in entry fields, and the whole application is not hildonized.
2007-04-29 HZe also did a short test of eTcl on a Nokia n800 (Tablet OS 2007 edition, version 3.2007.10-7). It also worked, but the remarks of the previous tester remain: entries do not open the virtual keyboard, so all applications using text input are pretty useless on this device (unless you implement your own virtual keyboard). The included programs ataxx.tcl and calc.tcl runs pretty good, however the font is rather small (this is because the screen is rather small for a 800x480 resolution). calc.tcl shows a \u221e (? it's really hard to read) below the CE button, perhaps some unicode problem?
collapse.tcl also runs, but it doesn't make a good fit on the 800x480 resolution, some lines at the bottom are just clipped.
Unfortunately, the Tk windows have no icon in the system tray, so you cannot bring them upfront if it was covered by some other application. A workaround is to minimize all others.
I guess to have a Tcl distro making use of the Hildon interface (including fullscreen mode, zoom in/out, system menues, ...) is a tough job. However, I would really appreciate it.
2007-05-02 Tez: I ported Tc/Tk with gnocl to Nokia N800 and just started to distribute the package at maemo.org [L5 ]. This package allows you to use Hildon interface and embedded Tk. Please see my web site [L6 ].
2007-05-02 PPK: Great job and thanks. Did the same test as before with eTcl. It works (also on my Nokia 770 'gregale'). Full hildonized with menues, the right fonts, virtual keyboard support (e.g. widgets.tcl).
2009-12-10 holgerj: Any ideas of porting Tcl/Tk to smart phones? There are several platforms where it might work: * Symbian, S60 * Samsung SHP * Sony Ericsson phones * other
All of these have Java ME, and Tcl/Tk should not need more computing power, but I don't have the slightest idea of how to get native programs on these machines, let alone porting something as complex as Tcl/Tk to them.