Pandora Looking For A Few People To Get Prerelease Pandoras

[kattle87]

I am an hobbyst C++ and FreePascal developer. What I might be able to do is working on "simple" programs (EG: I have quite a good experience using wxWidgets for programs with a GUI). I'm not able working on kernel issues or other "difficult" stuff.

What you will get for sure from me is HEAVY testing Let's say... More than 5/6 hours per day of usage. (Basically I will try to replace my laptop with the Pandora!)

Plus, I will do my utmost to port a very little Game Engine (64 kb executable under windows, about 120 kb under x86 linux) to the Pandora. The engine is called ZGameEditor and one member of the Farbrausch demo group has just shown interest in it. Here is an example of a game created with it: http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=5ma9G5M3nvE

So, if you have one spare Pandora, send it to me. I will send back at the end of the time period if needed.

Btw: I live in Italy.

Edit: Of course, the LUG I am part of (it's my university LUG) would be happy to work on the prototype, too! Especially one person from informatics engineering...

 

[Pickle]

The comment about prototype controls kind of worried me a bit. (especially giving the amount of money puts towards one)
I cant help with the kernel, but I could port applications like I have for the GP2X, in fact ive organized getting dosbox going. I would rather receive a finished pandora as soon as possible and wait to to port applications.

I suppose the question are this prerelease pandoras only for those that have pre-ordered?

 

[maciek_urbanski]

The comment about prototype controls kind of worried me a bit. (especially giving the amount of money puts towards one)
I cant help with the kernel, but I could port applications like I have for the GP2X, in fact ive organized getting dosbox going. I would rather receive a finished pandora as soon as possible and wait to to port applications.

I suppose the question are this prerelease pandoras only for those that have pre-ordered?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but 'developer version' of Pandora has nothing to do with the Pandora we have pre-ordered.
This is only a development platform, free of charge, and to be returned in future to Pandora team...

I honestly don't think that instead finished product we have paid for you get development version with prototype/patched components... B)

Anyway - during production there will be some units that are somehow flawed. Since Pandora team indicated, that they will test each one, they will be found before shipping, so those 'flawed' Pandoras (if flaws are not too severe) can be put to good use as development platforms.

This is of course wild speculation, but I would be very surprised if it was otherwise... B)

 

[Svartalf]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but 'developer version' of Pandora has nothing to do with the Pandora we have pre-ordered.
This is only a development platform, free of charge, and to be returned in future to Pandora team...

Sort of. It was my understanding that a MK0 dev-board recipient would be getting a finished product as a thank-you once it was all said and done so long as they do something WITH it (Remembering the comedy of errors with the first dev board I got...sigh...).

Honestly, if it works the same as the ones you guys paid for, I'd rather have the dev board as it's a piece of history like few others.

QUOTE

I honestly don't think that instead finished product we have paid for you get development version with prototype/patched components... B)



Definitely not.

QUOTE

Anyway - during production there will be some units that are somehow flawed. Since Pandora team indicated, that they will test each one, they will be found before shipping, so those 'flawed' Pandoras (if flaws are not too severe) can be put to good use as development platforms.



Honestly...I'd rather have a working unit with the case eventually- makes for an easier time of final development of many titles. However, that's MY preference, and what you're talking about makes some sense.

 

[BattleCattle]

I'll throw my hat into the ring.

I'm planning on working on a few projects eventually, and could step up my plans to start earlier if given the opportunity

1) OpenGL ES game engine - I originally considered writing my own (good coding exercise), but would probably be more efficient at this point to do a port. I know there's been some talk about Irrlicht or Horde3d on the forums and would be happy to help out with those efforts, but I'm keeping my eyes open for other possible engines, I'll do some digging in the next few days. My initial goal for a deliverable would be a compiled working demo for game builders to extend

2) ARToolkit / ARToolkit+ port - It's already had a few ARM-based ports for mobile devices and would probably be a fairly straightforward port - definitely possible to come up with a demo by release. Eventually would want to integrate it with a more complete engine (see #1), but that's a longer-term project. Downside: requires a camera (non-standard equipment for the pandora) Upside: personal area of interest for me

3) Port an existing game - I'm particularly fond of 3D games and rhythm games. A few of the games I have my hands on are:
Frets on Fire (If the libraries work out)
Stepmania (same)
osu (would require begging for source probably and looks like its .net so highly unlikely)
beat2x (already done some work with this code - should be pretty easy)

(I'm still looking for a 3D open source game to trigger that "must have on pandora!" reflex - feel free to offer suggestions!)

Oh and I've already pre-ordered, I'm a software developer, yadda yadda yadda

Anyways, not sure if this is what you're looking for, but look forward to getting my hands on a pandora to start developing, whether that be soon, or december/January.

 

[rjardina]

I don't need a board just an image. I have some experiences with compiling for ARM when in it comes to SBC. I could/have built a LFS (before there was a book/PDF) but if I start from scratch. And I understand the basic distro is going to be Ångström but I don't know what Y'all have done to the basics like the kernel and what flags are going to be enabled or not. An image would be nice and knowing package standards (deb/rpm/...).

 

[dithi]

I would like to apply. I pre-ordered the Pandora and I'm looking forward to developing for it. I work as a freelance developer, so I can easily spend several hours a day developing for P&|A. I have experience with C, Python, Bash, D, C++ and other less relevant languages.

My pandora-related objectives in no particular order:

• To make/improve an exporter for Blender->Horde3D that supports skinning with animations (got it working today, pics below, still a few glitches), shape keys (morph), GLSL generation.
• To port Horde3D to OpenGL ES 2.0 (I first wanted to port Ogre, but Horde is much, much closer to OGLES2.0)
• To make a cool demo (to be run on the Pandora, of course)
• To port several apps to OpenGL ES
• To make a OGLES2.0 based 2D library which renders SVGs to textures at runtime
• To modify SDL to be OGL acellerated (thus reducing power consumption)
• To Learn ARM assembler (I have experience with other microcontrollers)
• To optimize Bullet (the physics library which I'll use with Horde3D) for NEON or the DSP
• To make an ARM translator for NDS apps (like dinarec, but simpler due similarities) and try to port DeSmuME
• To port the open source D compiler (GDC) and libraries (phobos and tango)
• To make sure Python 2.5, 2.6, Pygame and maybe an IDE is included in the distro
• To port & optimize several open source audio synths (such as FluidSynth and ZynAddSubFX)
• To improve the distro (startup, wifi autoconnecting, tethering wizard)
• To make a Firefox plugin (maybe modifying a greasemonkey userscript) to watch youtube videos fullscreen with mplayer or maybe making a GUI like Canola

Of course, that's a lot of work and maybe I can't do everything. I'm devoted to do this; I also wanted to do things with the NDS and GP2X, but now I actually have time (and money to buy it). If I receive a pre-release pandora, I'll try to do the demo and the 2D lib before christmas (which could be helpful for those who are using Inkscape for graphics, including my friends who are graphic designers)

Say hello to my new cylinder-with-arms character

Screenshot 1
Screenshot 2

EDIT: I reread my post and it's too long (started the list as what I'm doing now and ended with almost all things I want to do)... I converted the images to links. I also realized that I may not be able to do both the demo and the 2D lib before christmas (I will try though, I also will do simple things such as the youtube script).

 

[Hooka]

Interested, and seem to find chunks of time here and there for GP2X stuff lately, so I'd assume the trend would continue and I could refocus my attention... I don't think I need to mention how crap my coding skills can be, you've all seen I have to mention though, I'm slightly worried about either surrendering my preorder (meaning I don't get a final unit, just this potentially control-less unit) or paying for the prerelease, as all my money is basically spoken for for quite awhile (damn yous schooling!)

I'd probably pump out a release of freesci, RACE! and maybe look into others... otherwise I'll just do it when I get my preordered unit

If you're just looking for kernel and application (meaning launchers, audio players, video players, file managers, etc.) dev's I'm probably not really the guy to send one to and you can just ignore me...

 

[w1ll14m]

i have some experience cross-compiling linux 2.6.xx kernel for arm.
I have done some work on a HP Jornada 720, which was running Gentoo on a custom built kernel. Also i have some hours to spent before Christmas
i think i have about 6-8 hours a week. drop me a PM if interested!

 

[ste_167]

I'm game, for my usual applications/games/emus..(the ST, text adventures, BattleJewels) or perhaps system tools to make user experience easier. Also working on a retro really ugly but multiplayer game, woowoo I have been planning to sack my life when the panda arrives You know how to get ahold of me

jeff

Skeezix is definitely the man for a pre-release Pandora. Get it sent

 

[torpor]

Count me in as an interested kernel/firmware/low-level hacker .. I can put in a great deal of effort on the distribution side of things, and I will be working right away on driver support for all kinds of interesting things, off the bat, anyway - whether I get a pre-release Pandora or not, the first thing on my list will be to get a full-blown USB-MIDI subsystem happening and user-friendly.

I would also like to put some time into the DSP side of things and work out some nice demo's and applications for the DSP .. I've been eager, for ages, to get some nice synthesis and effects stuff done on the Pandora, so .. if thats of any interest.

By way of qualifications, I am currently working at THALES on safety critical systems for transportation and my primary responsibilities are developing firmware and device drivers for such things as Tolapai .. I have been working on ARM platforms for years (In my home lab I have SC2410, GP2X, Sharp Zaurus, Beagleboard systems, etc.) so I'm quite happy to spend whatever time I need on the Pandora doing low-level work. I'm also 'the toolchain guy' at work too, so if there is responsibility needed in that area for Pandora, count me in.

 

[StarG]

I'm definitetly interested in some basic app development. An packaging application (apt+dpkg?) + maybe frontend. An USB information tool or an offline wikipedia reader. I would love to see XUL runner ported though the dependancies are vast i fear :/

My schedule is drifting between vast openness and tightly jammed, luckily the latter only in shorter spikes.

I have general programming knowledge and i know a tiny bit arm asm

EDIT: i don't worry about the status of the device, even a plain beagle board would be fine

 

[Tinnus]

I guess I'm putting my name on it too, for psx4all at least

 

[bawjaws]

I realized this doesn't directly affect the Angstrom kernel or gaming as such but still, can I suggest contacting Ubuntu's parent company Canonical to see if they'd be interested in one, given the recent news they're working on an ARM-based Ubuntu aimed at Cortex-A8 devices, as discussed here:

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=45241

It seems to be a general rule in Linux (particularly laptops) that the hardware actually owned by core developers gets supported first and best, and an official Ubuntu running on Pandora would, as has been brought up repeatedly be good even if primarily for publicity.

 

[Racemaniac]

as many others:
-willing: ofcourse
-skilled: a bit less, but as a last year CS student i should be able to get the hang of most things fairly quickly
-got time: also not that much, it's my last year, so i've got some work on my thesis and things like that -_-

 

[benjymous]

I'd definitely be willing and able to start porting existing applications over.

I've got 8 years professional development experience in the games industry, so I'd also start getting some of my existing work-in-progress games re-written.

 

[TaG]

can I suggest contacting Ubuntu's parent company Canonical to see if they'd be interested in one
+1. Sounds like a sound investment.

 

[parag0n]

I'm interested in a machine, to work on implementing TINXL.

However, if the preorder pandoras are going to ship before xmas, i may as well not bother, and just develop on my full pandora!

 

[#1 GameMaster]

Yes I have plenty of time to work on a port I just need to know what to work on and how much the dev. pandora cost, so what emulators are being worked on as far as consoles go? or is there an app you need ported. B)

 

[EdCa22]

I'm going to start porting over some nice open-source games from PC land. I'll start with Glest, then probably SuperTuxKarts, Planeshift (crystalspace), lincity-ng and Torcs, among others. Not really sure of the order ATM, plus other people might be doing ports of the same things...we'll see how far I get!

Other plans down the road (i.e. probably not before xmas unless I can be convinced they are more worthwhile) are to make a very fast but very pretty GUI shell, probably using fltk and some very simple window manager. It would manage application launching, file management and have a really nice and straightforward control panel. Then modify some parts of common desktop programs (Abiword, gnumeric) to work nicely on Pandora, without forking them (may not be anything really to do there given the hi-res screen of Pandora). I'd also like to port Octave (open source Matlab clone) and build an IDE for it, and eventually build some kind of simulink-like interface for it. Finally, I'm also interested in helping with an attempt at PSP emulation when desktop PSP emulators have matured a bit.

There's a bunch of hardware projects I have in mind but they will also take time.

In terms of free time, to put it bluntly, I work, live alone, and am currently sans-girlfriend, so I have almost every evening free and most weekends going spare. Over xmas I've got 2 weeks off, which, if I have a Pandora by then, will be spent almost entirely on porting games.

Ok, don't like selling myself, but I want to see Glest on Pandora SOON, so I may as well go all out :unsure: . I'm a control systems engineer doing control software for robots that upgrade and service the worlds largest experimental fusion reactor (JET), so I've experience in real time OS's and software (VxWorks, OS 9, RTAI/RTLinux), microcontrollers and DSPs (pics, avrs, 68k, arm, dspic etc etc) and am also the sole developer of a piece of 3D 'VR' software thats used by JET and other customers to visualise the robots during operations and also to simulate and plan operations (www.vr4robots.com), although we've now handed that over to a software development firm a short while ago (but I still seem to be doing most of the work :angry: ). I've been an admin and developer on the psilinux/openpsion linux port for years and have done a fair amount of hacking there, so have experience of cross-development on ARM. Also have experience of ARM in using gumstixs for various embedded projects. I have developed a linux 2.6 driver for a USB in-vitro neural stimulus generator (the STG2004/2008 - although this code is not released there are semi-functional versions of it floating all over the internet). Oh yeah, so that's C, C++, various assembly, various libs, and others.

Like many here I'm also a massive retro fan with a house full of old consoles, 80s computer systems and various aging PCs, Macs, SGIs and Sparcs - so I've got the passion!

EDIT: Wow, that was a lot longer than I intended, sorry.