Open Office? Azerty?

[maxime]

hello everybody,

I am seriously thinking about ordering mine.
My main concerne is about texte editing (that would be the main use for me with web and emulation). Would the linux version of pandora be able to run Open Office? If not, what other applications of the same kind? Would you be able to tranfert the files you have written on Pandora to window?

Another question; any chance to see a azerty version of the keyboard? On the next batch?

Sorry if my question is a little silly, I am not very knowlegable on thoses matter...

 

[sHARD]

Sure you could edit text on it. The keyboard isn't the greatest but it would work. Open Office is a little heavy but it's possible that a Linux OS on Pandora could handle it. Also, given that the Pandora is connected to the internet and supports flash drives, you shouldn't have any problems getting your files on and off the machine.

As for azerty keyboards, you'll be able to use the regular keyboard as azerty for sure, it just may have the wrong labels.

 

[whiskthecat]

Abiword should run nicely. As for azerty, you can set the keys to do what you want but you cant magically change the labels on them.

 

[sebt3]

There will be an office suite of some kind OOo, koffice or gnome-office.

Azerty keyboard is a no-go. As this will drive the production cost up.

But as the box will be open-able. You'll certainly be able to change the physical layout of the keyboard. If you do so I'm willing to offer the modified xkbd config file and instruction on how to set it up.

 

[benjiro]

Abiword should run nicely. As for azerty, you can set the keys to do what you want but you cant magically change the labels on them.

If the keys are separate, and not one big rubber slap ( like on phones ), you can move them around. Open Pandora, switch q=>a, w => z etc, and you got Azerty. Only thing left is the key mapping. Hey, i'm typing on a German Qwertz keyboard, with the keys switched to Azerty, only a few special keys don't add up ( secondary function labels ).

 

[whiskthecat]

Good idea, hadn't thought of that. There were quite a few asking about dvorak so I had assumed the keys were not interchangeable.

 

[craigix]

We do plan to have an office program on there - open office is pretty clunky and big even on a PC - there are faster and smaller ones which do the same thing.

If you really wanted to you could use open office though.

 

[Sphinxter]

Isn't there a java requirement in running open office, every time I try it I get an unwanted jvm, made me switch to abiword.

 

[Grench]

For simple text editing and minor message entry, the thumb QWERTY would work... You're not honestly thinking of trying to touch type on a 4" wide computer are you?

Now... Something that occurred to me... It DOES have a USB host port on the back. If you're sitting down to type anything longer than this email, just plug a real USB keyboard into it -or- it should work with a folding full-size Bluetooth keyboard of the Palm/WinMobile kind. The second would require some driver/setup I'll bet. However just plugging in a USB keyboard should work out of the box... At least I'd think that it would.

How far can the USB be pushed? What about one of those USB 2.0 docking station things?

 

[debernardis]

[my first post on these forums, hey!]
It is very likely from the specs that openoffice.org will be able to run in a usable way. It is definitely usable on the Nokia n800-n810 internet tablets which sport a 400 MHz, less powerful ARM processor, with same ram, so I imagine it should be someway more responsive on the pandora. By the way, I'm taking this one just for openoffice and the so, because I'm not particularly interested in gaming.

 

[Tobriand]

I'm hoping for an OpenOffice port fairly quickly myself. Though I doubt it'll show up at the time of release. It's one of those programs that'll probably take some while to surface, both because intuitively it will be more complex than a recompile (it may not be, but I wouldn't be so sure), and it hasn't been the focus of software development (generally speaking, emulators, with a bit of Ubuntu fairly recently...)

That said, it may already be recompiled for ARM (which means it should run), and just in need of some OMAP3 optimizations (to cut the battery power it needs). We'll see.

 

[Pleng]

But as the box will be open-able. You'll certainly be able to change the physical layout of the keyboard. If you do so I'm willing to offer the modified xkbd config file and instruction on how to set it up.

You'll need a soldering iron as they keys will be soldered directly onto the pcb!

 

[Tobriand]

But as the box will be open-able. You'll certainly be able to change the physical layout of the keyboard. If you do so I'm willing to offer the modified xkbd config file and instruction on how to set it up.

You'll need a soldering iron as they keys will be soldered directly onto the pcb!

How exactly would that work? You'd perpetually be completing the circuit.

That sebt3 is suggesting is just moving the keys around, which works on two assumptions - firstly, that they're separate keys rather than a membrane, and seconly, that they're all basically the same shape.

If those two are the case, then there's no reason it wouldn't work.

 

[rmm2131]

We do plan to have an office program on there - open office is pretty clunky and big even on a PC - there are faster and smaller ones which do the same thing.

If you really wanted to you could use open office though.

Any idea which efficient office program will be on Pandora?

As for long drafts, you can plug a usb keyboard in and use TV-out for a real writing experience.
That will be one of my Pandora uses in between some diversive Tekken 3, Dondonpachi, and Zelda 3. :wink:

 

[Pleng]

But as the box will be open-able. You'll certainly be able to change the physical layout of the keyboard. If you do so I'm willing to offer the modified xkbd config file and instruction on how to set it up.

You'll need a soldering iron as they keys will be soldered directly onto the pcb!

How exactly would that work? You'd perpetually be completing the circuit.

I don't know. Best ask MWeston I guess? I clearly remember though that it was said on GP32x boards that the keys will be directly soldered to the pcb. Obviously I can't search for that information right now, what with the site being down.

 

[javaJake]

Isn't there a java requirement in running open office, every time I try it I get an unwanted jvm, made me switch to abiword.

I know in Gentoo, you have a choice of whether you want OpenOffice to use Java. Whether that means it builds it internally or externally, I have no idea, but I'm pretty sure that removing that option would kill any dependency on Java libraries it might have.

 

[Sphinxter]

I'm using gentoo, have to check my use flags, thanks.

 

[polkunus]

You can always plug in a keyboard via USB

 

[Chip]

I clearly remember though that it was said on GP32x boards that the keys will be directly soldered to the pcb.

The key contacts are part of the PCB itself (shown here). The keys themselves - the plastic bits you physically press - are not soldered to anything. You can see what I assume is a test mold of the keys in this pic. I'm assuming that the individual keys will be separated from the flash and float in the key holes. If this is the case, it is a simple matter to take the keys out and arrange them as you like. You will have to change the system's character mapping as well, though I personally have no idea how to do it in Linux.

 

[grobi]

I'd prefer Open Office to every other alternative because it allows opening and editing the most proprietary filetypes. My main reason for installing an office package would be not to generate fresh but to manipulate existing documents, which will be from microsoft office using authors in nearly all cases.

grobi