Martin Gregorie wrote:
Simple answer: follow the NOTAMplot lead and write desktop soaring
software in Java so we can all have copies regardless of which OS we
run.


Like all simple answers, it's wrong: Java is portable because of the JVM
(Java Virtual Machine), this is a java processor which runs in software on
the host machine. As many people have learned to their cost, you pay for
this abstraction in compute cycles (lots of them!) - thus Java is SLOW.
Unless you know of a source of very high speed PDA's which can also support
LARGE amounts of RAM, then this one is a dead duck. You'll need both to
support the kind of functions you now find in the PDA flight director
systems on offer: e.g. moving map, support for different projections, etc.

They are all written in C++ anyway, and that is the architypal portable
language which also has the required performance even on PDA's, so why not
port SeeYou (or whatever) to a Linux PDA? Better yet, use Cumulus and give
some support to that (it runs under OPIE on PPC devices, or on any linux
PDA): http://cumulus.kflog.org http://cumulus.kflog.org


Rgds,

Derrick Steed