Palm OS Emulator for NDS?

quimbydogg · November 22, 2005, 09:45:27 AM

Does anyone know if there is a current project someone is working on for porting a palm OS emulator to the DS?

It seems like this would be a great application for the DS since it has the palm style touch screen. With the new wifi stuff comming out for homebrew if it was possible to integrate that you could have a fully operation palm for a lot cheaper than they usually run for.

With the new SC code open for reading data off the SC card you could load up all the palm apps then also like on a real one.

I was just kind of wondering since I recently broke my palm.

It seems like it would be an obvious port to do with the touchscreen and all.

Koji · November 22, 2005, 12:21:21 PM

Well, it'd be hard to "port" the palm OS without any of the palm OS source... the best that could be done would be through emulation, which would be slow but would probably be the better of the two choices anyways since no palm software would run on a ported version.

Unless I'm very much mistaken, palm do not run on the ARM architechture.

quimbydogg · November 22, 2005, 08:54:50 PM

Yeah thats what I meant, porting a Palm OS emulator... I know they are around I used to have one on my computer.

And palms do use ARM but I dont know much more about it. I just know that from shopping for them.

cory1492 · November 22, 2005, 09:38:17 PM

They use ARM7 and some use ARM9... Im fairly certain that the source does not exist, but there are plenty of other ways around that, you could build a platform that uses applications coded for the PDA, since the SDK is open, but the source to the OS is not so it would have to be a new OS entirely that can run Palm applications. A port of fireball or PalmOS 5 would be sweet, but I doubt that could happen any time soon, best bet is to hope winDS doesnt wind up bloated like its namesake, windows.

quimbydogg · November 22, 2005, 11:38:38 PM

How hard would it be code something that could run the palm files by using the SDK?

I have some experience coding with c++ and java for the last few years but I doubt I could do something like this on my own :\

It just seems like it would be amazingly useful since it would open the doors for a million very practicle and other random homebrew things from the palm scene to the DS. It could also cut down on the number of things I have to carry around in my pockets

wurlde · November 29, 2005, 04:22:58 AM

the code of the old emulator (PalmOS<=4.1) is open, but need a Palm ROM dump in order to work (well, if you have a Palm, thats not a problem, I have many of them

)

check this out...
http://www.palmos.com/dev/tools/emulator/

you must register from this point to get the POSE source code

hope this helps

wurlde · November 29, 2005, 04:29:06 AM

Oh! I forgot,
before Palm OS 5, Palm devices worked with a Motorola Dragonball (68K series) proccessor, running from 16 to 66MHz, depending on the device,
from Palm OS 5, they began tu use Intel proccessors, ARM and XScale series, from 126 to 416MHz, well Sony had some propietary tecnology...
I suggest begin the efforts with PalmOS<=4.1, also more apps are available for this than for PalmOS>5

quimbydogg · December 06, 2005, 09:11:10 AM

awesome, thanks a bunch for that. I will fool around with this during break after my finals.

Overdrive_X · December 06, 2005, 09:58:57 AM

Quote from: "quimbydogg"How hard would it be code something that could run the palm files by using the SDK?

I have some experience coding with c++ and java for the last few years but I doubt I could do something like this on my own :\

It just seems like it would be amazingly useful since it would open the doors for a million very practicle and other random homebrew things from the palm scene to the DS. It could also cut down on the number of things I have to carry around in my pockets

I think the best thing would be a NDS port of Python http://www.python.org I didn't check if there was one but the is a lot of good software written in python. And it would be easlier to write a PDA application than emulate a Palm ....

creepyplaidman · December 07, 2005, 10:09:30 AM

I would just write apps for WinDS (www.gbawins.com) it's really quite easy to do, it's just really basic c++ and the API is made for ds so it would be nice than palmos anyway.

spliff · January 06, 2006, 04:03:11 PM

long time ago i've heard about official palm cartridge for ds....

Koji · January 07, 2006, 03:52:33 PM

Quote from: "spliff"long time ago i've heard about official palm cartridge for ds....

There were talks many a moon ago about there being officially licensed software from nintendo that would have PDA functions, but it never came into being.

Might be more likely now that wifi is supported so people could use it as a portable e-mail device.

WarGames · January 07, 2006, 08:39:56 PM

Although, winDS is nice, its very different than a port, I see the possibility of a PalOS clone for DS but I wouldnt expect it to be much different (or better) than the already begun winDS project.
-But,
wouldnt it be sweet to be able to store files, use palm like software, close to linux with gui. that would quiet the psp fans :-p