Re: [PHP3] PHP for PDAs (Palm Pilots and friends)

Hello Chad, On 02-Apr-00 03:53:40, you wrote: >Erm... >I'll believe it when I see it. Thought the announcement was made on March >31, even on that date, the site said Last Updated: 1/04/2000 aka April >Fools Day. Now, the netcraft query seems quite proof indeed, however if at >this current moment you go to netcraft and query www.yahoo.com, you will >note that it indicates that yahoo is currently running on PalmOS - >screenshot at http://www.math.ohio-state.edu/~ccunning/yahoo.jpg >if >it's no longer there. Further, if you click on the PalmOS link on >netcraft's site, you'll see at the bottom a note that says "It's april the >first somewhere on the planet!". Further still, netcraft itself seems to >be running the apache module mod_april/1.0 (yet more screenshottage at >http://www.math.ohio-state.edu/~ccunning/netcraft.org). Even >further, >you'll note that the "screenshots" for apache on PalmOS are in a directory >called avrilfish, which is the french term for april fools. heheh, got me! :-) >Barring all this overwhelming evidence of an elaborate and quite >entertaining prank, my question would be, why in the world would anyone >need/want apache and php on a palm pilot?! It would be nice though, not necessarily Apache. If you read the original message below again you might be able to picture a new breed of handheld based offline applications that instead of being developed in device native code and user interfaces they would be able to run HTML/WML generated by PHP. Not only they would run unchangded on today's Palm Pilots but they would run on current and future handheld devices. The ability of PHP interfacing with databases would allow temporary data be stored in local (handheld based) database server to later be syncronized when the device goes online. Handheld based database servers with syncronization capabilities are a reality. So are Web browsers. The updated page on PDA Apache mentions that there are real handheld based Web servers under development. When all those components are widely available, all we need is a PHP port to link them all together. >On 1 Apr 2000, Manuel Lemos wrote: >> Hello, >> >> Some time ago I suggested that PHP be ported to run under hand-held PDA >> devices like Palm Pilots and friends. There is a lot of potential for PDA >> based Web applications for offline handheld devices. >> >> Just an example, imagine the distributor sales man that is going from store >> to store to taking orders from customers. An offline application based on >> the handheld device is what is most suitable for this. >> >> The advantage of Web based applications is the possibility of large code >> reuse of existing Web applications without the need to learn handheld >> specific technologies like WAP/WML or anything like that. >> >> PHP could be used for this purpose, if there was a PHP version for handheld >> devices. There are several database servers with the support for data >> replication for syncronizing data while the device was offline. >> >> Of we would need Web server that would run on the handheld device. The >> good news is that Apache was just ported to PalmOS. Look here: >> >> http://apachepda.apacheservices.com/ >> >> They are looking for help on porting Perl and PHP to PalmOS. I heard that >> there are volunteers to port Perl already. I wonder if there are any >> volunteers or intention to help on porting PHP to PalmOS. It would be a >> shame if PHP would be left behind on this important breakthrough. >> >> This message is mostly addressed to PHP core developers but I think anybody >> can help. Just go to the page above. Regards, Manuel Lemos Web Programming Components using PHP Classes. Look at: http://phpclasses.UpperDesign.com/?user=mlemos@acm.org -- E-mail: mlemos@acm.org URL: http://www.mlemos.e-na.net/ PGP key: http://www.mlemos.e-na.net/ManuelLemos.pgp --