Travis Casey wrote:
> Roy S Schestowitz wrote:
>
>> I have always believed that other launchers were not much more than
>> flashy graphics or extra bells-and-whistles.
>>
>> I remember that when I got my first Palm in 2002 I was excited about
>> games, then Internet on the move, then E-mail and then Acrobat Reader. It
>> was not long before I realised that the only person I impressed was
>> myself and all I really needed were the main built-in applications.
>>
>> At present, I maybe invoke the launcher once a week, when I need
>> DocsToGo. The rest can be dealt with using the buttons. The botton line
>> (to Eddie) is: will you wind up sticking to practicality or flash?
>
> That's a rather hostile way of putting it -- why do you need to make it
> sound like if he needs or wants something more, he's just not practical?
>
> Different people need to do different things. It's great for you that all
> you need is the built-in apps... but other people need other things. And
> no, I'm not using them to go around showing other people "look at this
> neat thing I can do" -- I'm using them because they're what I really want
> and need to do.
>
> My daytime job is Unix system administrator. In conjunction with that, I
> have pssh and PalmVNC installed, so I can get onto my systems remotely to
> do things with them. None of the built-in applications can help me with
> that.
>
> I'm also a writer. In support of that, I have QED, so I can edit
> something longer than 4K without it being broken into a whole bunch of
> different
> memos. I also have CF2DOC, so I can convert the files I work with with
> QED
> back and forth to text files on my SD card. I also like to read, and with
> those two, I can download books from Gutenberg, copy them onto my SD card,
> and use time standing in line at the grocery store and such to read them.
>
> I have Blazer, because every once in a while, it's nice to be able to go
> to
> some web sites when I don't have ready access to a PC. I also have LFtp,
> because in conjunction with pssh, it gives me a way to install a new
> application without having to have a PC I can hotsync with. Again, a need
> that doesn't come up often, but when it does come up, can be very
> pressing.
>
> There's a bunch of applications that come and go on my Palm -- stuff I'm
> trying out to see if I like it, games, etc. That's because mine is a toy
> as well as a tool. :-)
>
> Getting back to the original topic of this message, I use LauncherX. I
> like having the date and time both always visible, since I'm one of those
> people
> who forgets what day it is. I like the battery indicator giving
> percentage
> of battery life remaining in numbers as well as a graphical indication. I
> like having a memory indicator at the top of the screen with the battery
> one.
>
> I find the tabbed interface faster and easier for me to use than the
> drop-down box for categories. I find the built-in launcher's interface
> for moving things from one category to another very cumbersome, compared
> to
> LauncherX's "drag it to the tab you want it in". Deleting applications is
> also simple and straightforward -- pop out the toolbar and drag it onto
> the
> trashcan. If I wonder how much memory a particular app is taking up, I
> pop
> out the toolbar and drag it onto the info icon. If I want to manage files
> on my SD card, LauncherX does that too -- so I don't need a separate
> application for it, or to go to a PC just to move a file into a directory.
>
> Just because *you* find that the built-in applications do what you need
> doesn't mean that everyone else does, or even should.
In my previous message I did _not_ mean to say that:
-People use their PDA's to show off.
-Using more advanced applications is impractical.
I apologise if it sounded that way.
You convinced me that some people's needs are very different. I am rarely
away from a machine for longer than 15 minutes so I leave all the heavier
work to stationary machines. All that I need to take with me are the
littler notes; I do the rest of my data transfer (from place to place)
using HTTP, SSH and FTP.
Launchers are not for me, but as you have proven, to some they are great
productivity tools.
--
Roy Schestowitz
http://schestowitz.com
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