Some months ago I sent this suggestion twice with the "contact Carl" form, but I've had no reply so maybe it has been lost or whatever. Maybe this is a better suited place, so here it is again for your enjoyment ;)
I think the
Internet Tablet Nokia 770 is a very good candidate to show Rebol's potential to a larger audience.
It is a pocket device designed with internet connection in mind, just like Rebol! It uses a (not so much) stripped down version of Debian linux as OS.
Rebol already works on Debian, so with very little effort a port can be done. The 770 is "famous" for how easy it can be for developers to make linux stuff work on it. Python, Ruby, SmallBasic, GiuleScheme... are examples of programming languages already ported on the device. Have a look
here for an overview of some stuff ported and working.
All the
development tools are free, and if you have access to a desktop computer with Linux installed you're ready to go: just install the development environment, make some changes to Rebol's code until it works into the scratchbox environment, compile for arm target and that's it. Well, hard stuff for non-developers, but sure a light weekend task for good developers like you at RT!
Documentation is also very good, look
here for example.
I'm sure porting Rebol on this device would be a really good move, even from a marketing point of view, at least to let a larger audience know it (770 developers, and users too!).
Being an "Internet Tablet", the device provides a wireless connection to the internet (or through a bluetooth phone). Rebol will pulse on it with its full potential, using the net as it needs and bringing to users and developers a really fresh experience, with both offline and online small apps, that will hardly fill the 128MB internal memory and the inserted RS-MMC (it's shipped with a 64MB one, but it is common practice to use a 1GB or 2GB one).
Considering that Rebol opens the doors to the use of lots of very little apps, it will easily become a must on every wise user's 770.
Think how it has been welcomed from developers and normal users the Python port. It is a *big* package to install, but it is worth. They say "Python is for serious programming and to have fun. Python has a nice syntax, it's easy to learn and powerful enough for a vast range of applications, this is why we choose Python for Maemo". So, what about Rebol instead?
The 770 is a relatively fresh device, and only a fraction of the possibilities have been explored.
Well, I hope I've convinced you at least in doing some evaluation on how much simple, convenient and costless would be to port your baby on this little, pretty and Internet-oriented device; please note this is not a phone (even if Google Talk and Gizmo work well on it), so its user's base is really asking for an internet experience, everywhere, and what's better than Rebol for a portable device that is aimed on internet connectivity and can manage offline apps as well?
May I underline that if none of you has access to a real device to play with, you'll be able to develop and test everything into the tuned scratchbox provided by Nokia with the SDK (a sort of emulator of the 770 itself):
for test purposes on the real thing, I'll be glad to use mine for you if you provide me the .deb packages (or, you will sure find betatesters posting a request on the well frequented mailing lists "
maemo-developers@maemo.org" or "
maemo-users@maemo.org").
Ok, that's all, sorry for the long thing, bye :)
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There's also a RAMBO ticket (I don't remember if it's from you) and other people have requested it too. I have looked into it and a port is probably very easy for Core, and should not be impossible for View (however, it seems to me that you have to use the GTK for the UI, so it's not possible to use the Linux version of View directly; however I have not investigated this deeply so I might be wrong).