Profile for Piers

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Email: piers@eh.org ICQ: AOL: Yahoo:	Username: Piers Realname: Piers Wombwell About me: Homepage: Face/Logo: Comments posted: 17 (show all)

Recent comments

On ARM reveals new 1GHz multi-core processor:

In reply to jmb: Ah, fair enough. I hadn't realised there were two variants of the Cortex (M and A), so read the wrong one. I do wonder how many instruction sets a single embedded processor needs Piers on 5/10/07 2:56PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

On ARM reveals new 1GHz multi-core processor:

Um... Is it worth pointing out the Cortex has an different instruction set? There's no way RISC OS will run on it without significant changes - probably at least as large as the 32-bit project. Piers on 5/10/07 2:24PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

On Java and RISC OS:

I wouldn't nag them. It's not the most useful of apps, nowadays. We concentrated on browser applets, at the time, rather than command-line usage. Nowadays, Java is really the other way round. And the language support is a bit lacking (1.0 doesn't support child classes, IIRC), and the libraries are rather dated, so I'm not sure how much use it would be for people wanting to learn Java. But given Sun's Java is now GNU licensed, if Castle were willing to GNU license the Acorn Java code, it would be a sensible starting point for a new port. But I agree with others - the effort should be more usefully put elsewhere. Piers on 27/09/07 10:33AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

On Java and RISC OS:

Java 1.0.2 could be free for non-commercial use, from Sun's point of view. I'm pretty sure Castle own the rights now, so it would be their decision. Anyway, you want SVG, not Silverlight Piers on 26/09/07 12:31AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

On Java and RISC OS:

Hmm, Castle probably own the rights to the Acorn Java port (it was transferred to Pace, so I assume Castle got them). Sun granted me a free non-commercial licence to their parts, when Acorn was dissolved, but I didn't have the time to finish the 1.2 port - to release it, you'd need to pass the JCK, which is a huge test suite. It was decided not to release 1.0.2 free due to dealers still having Riscafe CDs in stock. It'd be a huge job to get it up and running, but basing a port on the 1.2 AWT would make a lot of sense, if someone were mad enough to bother. I'm not quite sure why it keeps getting compared to Flash - yes, in a browser environment, Java's irrelevant these days, but outside browsers, Java's more useful than Flash, IMO. Piers on 25/09/07 00:17AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

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Today's featured article

Adventures with a Lego-cased A7K web server
Having previously built desktop and laptop cases of out Lego bricks, model building Peter Howkins has turned his attentions towards crafting a slim box to slid his A7000 into a rack, alongside other rackmount servers. Having pieced together the housing, Peter puts a legacy RISC OS machine through its paces as an internet-facing server.
 11 comments, latest by jess on 3/12/08 2:07PM. Published: 21 Nov 2008

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