Linux on the Agenda VR3

Hardware

There are two versions of the VR3d (developer version). One was released in December 2000 in the U.S. (grey cover). And the "Second Edition" was released in January 2001 in the U.S. and in Germany. This one features some enhancements and a blue cover with an "Agenda Developer Edition" Logo. The VR3 itself comes in two flavors VR3-8M and VR3-16M. In Spring 2002 the manufacturer AgendaComputing has announced to finish their business soon. But you may get these PDAs from SoftField and from Xtops.DE now.

• 66 MHz MIPS-CPU (VR4181 by NEC)
• 16 MB FlashROM
• 8/16 MB RAM
• 160x240-Pixel 16-Grey-Mode-Display
• IrDA
• serial Port

Resources

• The AgendaWiki seems to be the best available resource.
• The Agenda Software Repository (ASR) is for tracking software developed, and developing for the Agenda.
• Agenda Community Portal
• Inofficial FAQ
• some pictures of the VR3d
• <agendav3_at_freelists.org> mailing list (mostly in German) at FreeLists
• developer list for Agenda-Snow
• The Fast Light Tool Kit - FLTK is a C++ graphical user interface toolkit· for X (UNIX(R)), OpenGL(R), and Microsoft(R) Windows(R) NT 4.0, 95, or 98

Ports and Distributions

vrdeb

vrdeb is a set of utilities to compile and manage source and binary packages for the Agenda VR3 Linux pda. As implied by the name, vrdeb uses the Debian packaging format.

Agenda-Snow

The SourceForge Agenda SNOW Compiler Development Project is intended to further the development of the Agenda SNOW Compiler and porting of code to the Agenda SNOW based romdisk.

Software

PIMs

MuPO

MuPO (Multi-Purpose-Organizer) is a powerful PIM application for desktop and PDA systems. It features a hierarchical todo-list and notes, appointments, a project-time recorder, a calendar, recurring items, and more. It is fully searchable, and it includes a tool to sync several mupo-files. You can use it on an Agenda PDA, Compaq iPaq, or on a PC running Linux or Windows.

Calendrian

Calendrian is an enhanced calendar application for the Agenda VR3 Linux PDA. It is a lot faster than the original schedule application, and it has multiple alarms, free alarm intervals, and faster navigation.

FlDictionary

FlDictionary is a generic dictionary application for the Agenda Linux VR3 PDA. It supports multiple dictionaries which are searched in the specified directory. The format of the dictionary files is simple.

Agenda Desktop

The Agenda Desktop lets you run the Agenda's PIM applications on your own desktop and provides an interface to easily sync the .dat files from the desktop to the agenda and vice versa. It provides a frontend to connecting to the Agenda through pppd and a frontend to kernel and romdisk upgrades through VRFlash.

Monica

Monica is a small monitor calibration tool using the FLTK library. It works as frontend to xgamma to alter the gamma correction for XFree86. The gray and color scales help you to find out usable settings.

fltdj

The Daily Journal fltdj , is a PIM program that is written using the Fast Light Tool Kit. It manages daily notes, appointments, holidays, contact and to-do lists, and issues alerts before scheduled appointments.

Tools

gVRflash

gVRflash is a graphical frontend for the standard flash utility supplied with the Agenda VR3 (vrflash). It uses a GUI-independent backend to handle vrflash, so it is very easy to implement another frontend.

VRSync software for data exchange with MS-Windows (TM) 95, 98, ME

VRSync synchronizes data with MS-Windows (TM) 95, 98, ME Applications (like MS-Outlook etc.). VRSync software is available for all registered users. A download free of charge is not possible because of license laws. Please register at AgendaComputing.

AgToys: Small Tools and Toys for the Agenda(tm) PDA

The AgToys site attempts to collect those tools into a single one-stop site for free software for your Agenda.

Fast Light WRITER

Flwriter is a small WYSIWYG multi-lingual word processor based on the FLTK library. UTF-8 Xhtml is used as the native file format. It can export documents to Unicode Rich Text Format. Both right-to-left and left-to-right words can be entered on the same line.

Games

FL-Inventor

FL-Inventor is a 3D/VR portable toolkit.

PDA Maze

PDA Maze is a first-person 3D maze game written inXlib. It's small and fast and runs nicely on theAgenda VR3 Linux-based PDA. It has options forgame timers, maze sizes, and different map modes. PDA Maze

Brick Out

Brick Out is a game where you move a paddle back and forth to bounce a ball around the screen. Use the ball to break all of the bricks at the top of the screen. It was written with the Agenda VR3 PDA in mind, but works on anything that supports Xlib.

Agendaroids

Agendaroids is a game where you maneuver a space ship in a field of asteroids, and shoot at them to break them into smaller pieces. It uses vector-based graphics with fixed-point trigonometry, so it runs well even on the FPU-less VR3, but it also runs on any other Xlib-based system.

Aliens

Aliens is a simple Xlib-based Space Invader game designed for the Agenda VR3 PDA. It is played with the PDA device held sideways, and using the buttons on the face of the unit.

Misc

TI85 Emulator

TI85 Emulator for Unix works on common Linux boxes and is in use on Agenda VR3 Linux PDA too. The X toolkit can be easily replaced by the Xlib or something else; if you don't like FLTK or GTK.

Monica

Monica is a small monitor calibration tool using the FLTK library. It works as frontend to xgamma to alter the gamma correction for XFree86 or Xorg. The gray and color scales help you to find out usable settings, and 2.2 gamma block helps you set the correct overall gamma.

flphoto

flphoto is a basic image management and display program based on the FLTK toolkit. It can read, display, print, and export many image file formats, and supports EXIF information provided by digital cameras. license: GNU General Public License (GPL)

Sword/PDA

Sword/PDA is a Bible-reading program for the Agenda PDA.It is small enough to add to an Agenda without making a custom rootdisk image or removing software, and provides good performance, even with on-the-fly decompression on the Agenda.It integrates with the Agenda's Notes application via copy/paste for easier notetaking.It includes The King James Version (KJV), The Bible in Basic English (BBE), Noah Webster's translation, and Young's Literal translation.You can easily create new compressed Bible modules from Sword Bible modules.

GoWeather

GoWeather displays an attractive representation the current weather conditions for a particular location, along with upcoming weather forecasts. The source of the data are small, text-based reports in a standard format (METAR and Zone Forecast (ZFP)) made available from an unchanging, reliable source (the National Weather Service (NWS)). GoWeather is FLTK-based, has a small form-factor, and the data files are very small and can be accessed offline. This means GoWeather is suitable for Linux handhelds (like the Agenda VR3 PDA).

xmltVR3

xmltVR3 is an Electronic (TV) Program Guide for the Agenda VR3 PDA, using data gathered by the various grabbers of the XMLTV-Project. It is planned to be extended to act as a remote control for TVs and VCRs, to make use of the integrated infrared transmitter.

Development

Simply Powerful ToolKit - SPTK

The Simply Powerful ToolKit (SPTK) is a powerful widget toolkit based on the Fast and Light ToolKit (FLTK). It is geared for business-style application development with database support (ODBC). All the widgets support database connectivity. A special CDialog class makes editing database records very easy. Every widget can be connected to the field, and CDialog can be connected to the database table.

vtkFLTK

vtkFLTK is a small C++ class library that simplifies the development of FLTK event-driven interfaces for use with VTK. It allows the composition of complex graphical interfaces to complex visualization facilities by bridging disparities between FLTK and VTK event and windowing system handling. license: BSD License (revised)

Credits

• Georg Lukas <georg_at_boerde.de>
• Sebastian Henschel <shensche_at_kodeaffe.de>

Please feel free to mail me if you have further information about the Agenda VR3.

Werner Heuser <wehe_at_tuxmobil.org>