Math and Palm
Ever since I got my first PDA (a 2nd generation Palm, when they were still called PalmPilots, actually 1st generation ones were called Pilots… anyways), I’ve wanted to write some sort of Mathematica/Derive like computer algebra systems for the platform. At the time, the Palms were running Motorola 68K based processors with 512K of memory for storage (much less for heap). The TI-92 which ran Derive based software was/is running on similar hardware. In many ways I still think PDAs would make good platforms for running math applications beyond simple calculators. Some sort of Pocket Mathematica. Maybe its just the image of an engineer or scientist pulling out a PDA and solving a problem or testing a theory that appeals to me.
Nowadays, I’m pretty sure PDA hardware is far ahead of calculator hardware. In fact, PDA hardware is probably not too far from computer hardware of a handful of years back. Despite the hardware advances, after taking a quick look through some PDA software sites, I still don’t see anything filling the niche.
Oh well, must be just me. Maybe someday I’ll get around to it.