Re: [tlug] Newbie: Kubuntu Configuration

[CL <az.4tlug@example.com>]

Jonathan Byrne wrote:

> Very cool that they have an experimental version of Ekisupaato, I
> remember using that on Win95J back in the day.

Not what I said.  There are a couple of people in the development office 
who are playing around with delivering Ekisupaato content using Linux. 
Neither are officially supported ... or, so they say.

If I understand correctly, the two programs I mentioned make extensive 
use of libraries and databases that can exist under any OS.  What is OS 
specific is the method for manipulating the data and putting it up on 
screen.  That is a much smaller part of the total package.  Right now, 
they've mapped the processes along WIN lines but since it has been a 
constant upgrade from WIN 3.1J it isn't the most efficient way to 
calculate routes.

So, they've basically got an alpha version that runs LIN but imitates 
WIN internally.  They're now going back and rewriting the underlying 
programming to eliminate all of the subroutines that LIN doesn't need. 
Since it is the WIN / Mac versions that buy everyone's ramen, that's 
what they concentrate on.

I never heard that either of these were the result of formal projects 
intended to lead to a salable product.

> I guess you must not be under an absolute NDA, or you couldn't have told
> us they exist <g> What else are you allowed to say? Such, as GTK+ or
> KDE? Or neither? Is it mostly stable and/or mostly feature-complete?

No one mentioned an NDA, but I didn't talk to _those_ people anyway. 
Right now everyone seemed to be at a "we were wondering if we could do 
this so we tried when we had some down time" level.  It _was_ said to me 
that the real money for them is in the data and manipulating it is gravy 
as they have another product they can then sell.

> Since I no longer live in Japan I no longer have any need for Ekisupaato,
> but this is cool news anyway. If they were to publicly announce working
> on a Linux version, I'm sure they'd get a very positive response from
> LUGs in Japan. Of course, I guess that cat is kind of out of the bag now
> <g>

Ekisupaato is one of those products I can no longer live without.  It's 
saved me more than the annual subscription fees and gotten me a lot of 
places cheaper and faster than what seemed to be the best way.  It also 
has a lot of neat tricks like showing you that you can leave later and 
arrive earlier if you change your route ... sometimes ... especially 
once you get outside of the Yamanote loop in Tokyo or the Central Loop 
in Osaka.

But, if they announced that a LIN version existed or was being 
developed, it might steal the thunder from their web-based versions that 
are rumored to be coming soon.  Let's face it, there are a whole lot 
more people who are never out of WiFi or Willcom range and will pay more 
for an online product than people like me who fall off the grid 
regularly and need an on-disk product.  I'm sort of a dinosaur, if not 
just outside the main buyer demographic ... whichever one is more polite.


--
CL