Thanks CE and mscdex!
Doesn't anyone use their first names anymore? Oh ... yeah ... this coming from "Mr. Blow" ...
Yeah, the End of Life Syndrome seems to be all-too-common when looking for MIPS CE 2.11 stuff. Java 1.1.6 is better than nothing at all, and it's not beyond my capabilities to port the appropriate portion of the latest-and-greatest open-source JVM code to CE 2.11, other than not enough copious spare time
(spare tire, I got, though!
) Of course, it might not run in even a 48 MB PenCentra 130, even if I did an update of just the appropriate subset of functionality from the most recent J2SE-derived open source. The CDC/CLDC/MIDP miniscule subset would theoretically work, but, that's pretty lowest-common-denominator, even compared to Personal Java.
There's an open-source Java project toolset that I'd like to run on the PenCentra that's pretty mainstream in terms of its GUI and core logic functionality, and even the serial comm I/O is at about 9.6 Kbps, which should be easily handled by the PenCentra hardware and the CE code
(assuming Java doesn't keep me so abstracted from the hardware - or, is it distracted from the hardware? - that I can't get the timing of the data frames/packets right
I did download both the 4.0 and 4.2 embedded CE SDKs, but, the IDEs don't complete starting up due to non-specified errors - the dialogs go away just as I'm able to read the messages, which don't provide any useful info, anyway. When I ran the top level installers, they acted like they were doing the right things, but it was soon obvious that a bunch of things were missing, and I had to run a number of the lower-level installers by hand to get things to show up in the expected places. I think I still have a few installers to find and run. It's not like I had anything better to do, right?
Oh, and I finally did find my PCMCIA Compact Flash adapter, stuffed the nearest 1 GB
(Lexmark?
) card I had lying around in and stuck it all into the slot on the PenCentra, and it came up on the CE desktop like it had always belonged there - woo-hoo! I verified that I could copy files in both directions on both the laptop and the PenCentra, so, now I can get stuff on and off without any fuss. I installed a couple of the MIPS downloads from the support area here on the site, and they ran without a hitch. Now, I really need to find an expansion module so I can get the RAM up to that whopping 48 MB level!
WiFi would also be nice, so, I've been scouring the shelves looking for NE2000 and other compatible chipset 802.11b PCMCIA adapters. I did find a couple of wired Ethernet PCMCIA cards with NE2000 chipsets, so, they should allegedly work out-of-the-box
(my mileage in getting the network settings correct will very likely vary, though
).
Ah, more fun than a barrel full of monkeys - I guess monkeys are more of a pain the butt than they first appear, in a barrel, or otherwise.
Thanks again, and All the Best,
Joe Blow