Day one' software and general functionality!


Wrath Of Khan

Soul soother...
Joined
Dec 29, 2009
Messages
5,220
Age
46
Location
Ireland
When the Pyra is finally released will there be a solid basic suite of applications? I think its a must to sell to a slightly more mainstream audience.

What i mean is a fully functioning mp3 player, video player, browser etc.

If we go with the arm chip (i reckon we will) then some pandora software eg mp3 players etc could be ported and tailored to fit the pyra i suppose.

In a nutshell, imo its easier to market a device, that has at least good basic functionality in several key areas.

I would hope for a concerted effort of some kind to ensure decent launch software. Perhaps a bunch of devs could organize and split tasks amongst themselves.

Obviously devs will like to port stuff to the pyra, for fun and to help with various stuff, all of this will come in time, no doubt but imo good basic functionality is important at launch.

I think there was some thread a while ago about preparing or making a plan to organize or develope software, or was i imagining that.
 
the plan so far was to use arm debian, so there will be a massive software library that will just work.
Really. I did not know this. Sounds good. We won't have acces to this if ed chooses a different soc, but i reckon it will be an arm chip in the pyra.
 
the plan so far was to use arm debian, so there will be a massive software library that will just work.
Really. I did not know this. Sounds good. We won't have acces to this if ed chooses a different soc, but i reckon it will be an arm chip in the pyra.
No it will still be debian no matter what SoC is chosen. It will be an ARM SoC most likely OMAP5 and the other runner ups are also ARM based.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
the plan so far was to use arm debian, so there will be a massive software library that will just work.
This is good, but at the same time, I just hope we don't lose the excitement that came w/ the early days of the GP2X and the Pandora where every new port was so exciting. :)

-God Ginrai
 
the plan so far was to use arm debian, so there will be a massive software library that will just work.
This is good, but at the same time, I just hope we don't lose the excitement that came w/ the early days of the GP2X and the Pandora where every new port was so exciting. :)

-God Ginrai
Hopefully that will leave more time for specific development instead of just porting stuff. 
 
Despite there being a Debian ARM library available, I think there is good reason to deliver a Pyra specific mplayer port, with speed improvements.
 
There will always still be opportunities to optimize software for the Pyra, in terms of speed (compiled specifically for OMAP5 instead of generic armhf, or even using NEON/DSP/M4), but mostly in terms of user interface: a small screen with touch and inputs that include shoulder buttons and dual nubs are not what you have on a typical laptop or desktop computer. There are more possibilities in terms of input, and less possibilities (that is, less area) in terms of visual output.

And of course we can always contribute to existing FOSS projects (not necessarily Pyra-specific stuff), and give something back to the FOSS community :)
 
And of course we can always contribute to existing FOSS projects (not necessarily Pyra-specific stuff), and give something back to the FOSS community
In that regard what was the impact of the Raspberry Pi for example ?  
I have no idea -- it's hard to tell what motivates someone to contribute something, or what hardware they are using to dev for/on. There is no easy way to calculate things like the number of features or lines of code that were written directly or indirectly because of the Raspberry Pi.
 
I think there is enough to port and improve.

Especially Games and Emulators.

Also more Pyra specific Software is needed: 3G/4G, Phone Software, and so on.
 
the plan so far was to use arm debian, so there will be a massive software library that will just work.
I hope this will come true. From the entire Pandora project I learned at least that nothing "will just work" sadly. ^^ Even stuff that should just work didn't, good thing is over time it went much much better for the Pandora thanks to all the busy devs. ;)

So I'm a little bit concerned already if there will be anything for Pyra launch that really works. I can imagine that stuff like drivers, optimizing etc. may also take some time to get right like it was for the Pandora. And Pyra is an even more complex system, almost scary complex...  :ph34r:
 
I think there is enough to port and improve.

Especially Games and Emulators.

Also more Pyra specific Software is needed: 3G/4G, Phone Software, and so on.
All I can say is expect a new RPG to come to the Pyra (and possibly the Pandora) sometime after my Pyra arrives. 

-Glyph Reader
 
Back
Top