“TrollTech’s Qt/Embedded running on Compaq iPAQs and Casio
Cassiopeias was on display. Qt/Embedded has a rich set of tools for
handhelds, and the interface looks solid. I spent some time with a
pair of demo units and took a look at a prototype unit used to get
the environment up and running on the Cassiopeia.”
“Performance on the older Cassiopeia was a little slower than
what we saw on the iPAQ. On the iPAQ, though, Qt/Embedded proved to
be as snappy displaying its window-based interface and multiple
application windows in color with alpha transparency as a
monochrome PalmOS-based device. A small suite of PIM utilities and
games was polished and very usable. Though only the Tetris game is
a direct port from KDE software, all the apps had the distinctive
KDE look. That look, though, didn’t translate into slavish devotion
to making the device behave entirely like KDE: the controls are
layed out in a sensible manner for a handheld, certainly no more
intrusive than the menu/clock bar on PalmOS, which alleviates some
concerns many have expressed that handheld developers may repeat
the mistakes Microsoft has made with WinCE and, to a lesser extent,
PocketPC in terms of inappropriate translations of interface
elements from their desktop OS’s.”
“Qt/Embedded has a fairly robust handwriting recognition setup
similar to the Graffiti many are used to from PalmOS handhelds, but
it included one interesting feature: penstrokes can be redefined on
the fly, meaning if you have a hard time with the pre-programmed
strokes, you can work out the kinks to suit yourself better by
defining your own variations.”