Palm Pilot

    Keywords: Software

This page deals with everything Go players might want to do with a Palm. When I say Palm, I am referring to a handheld computer running Palm OS. Several makers offer Palm OS devices. I used a Palm IIIxe and a Sony Clie PEG-SJ22 for my reviews. For other devices see Go Programs.[2]


What can you do with it

  • Replay and record SGF files
  • Use an interactive joseki dictionary
  • Have a database of pro games with you
  • Play against the Palm (not recommended)
  • Have a complete copy of Senseis Library in your shirt pocket :-)
  • Have the entire GoProblems.com Database on your Palm

A word about hardware

Displays

The original Palms had black and white LCD displays with a resolution of 160x160 pixels. This is just enough to display a full 19x19 Go board plus a little info on the side. Recently a new generation of Palms has appeared with colour displays having 320x320 pixels. While the latter are much easier on the eyes when reading for several hours, the former are a very handy and cheap way to record SGF at tournaments.

Beware of the Palm IIIc, which was a low resolution color Version of the Palm III. This display is imho not suitable for viewing Go diagrams, because the different colors of the subpixels stand out too much.

CPU

Even with handhelds, there is a lot of talk about CPU speed. From my own experience I can say, that I have never had any speed problems with the software described on this page.

Memory

Early Palms came with only one megabyte of RAM. This is more than enough for SGF reading and a Joseki dictionary. If you want to carry around Senseis Library you should have a device with a memory card slot and a Memory card of >= 64 MB.

Memory cards have another great advantage. You can back up your Palm onto one. If your battery goes flat and you lose the contents of your RAM, you can restore from the card. Otherwise the only backup option is a desktop computer, which you might not have with you.

Power

Newer Palms all have a built in battery, which can be recharged using a litte power adaptor. Older units feed on standard AAA batteries. The Palm maintains the contents of RAM while you change the batteries. Battery changes should be performed within 30 seconds.

Note the difference in battery life between the old LCD screens and the new color screens! An old Palm Vx might last for weeks of use without needing to recharge, but the newer color Palm OS devices may not finish a day of use. One trick is to turn the backlight down so that it does not use so much power.

Problems with accus: [3]

Miscellaneous

In addition to a Palm, you need a desktop computer from which you can load Programs and files into the handheld.

One nice feature that was introduced with the Palm III, is an IR communications port. Using this, you can beam documents and programs from one Palm to another. This is a very cool feature fo sharing game records. One player (or a spectator) can record the game and later beam it to the handhelds of all interested players. No cables needed.


What software is there

This section describes the various software packages you might want to install on your Palm.[1]

Overview

Go playing programs (with AI)

Go game recording programs

Go study reference

Goban software (board only, no AI)

This link is broken, but I found it here: [ext] http://216.97.122.211/download/Go1_0.zip (although I don't recommend it).

Does the above link refer to the same progam as the one by Adorjan Kiss found T URL: <[ext] http://www.lirmm.fr/~kiss/Go/>, version 1.2 since 2002-12-17?

Go Variants

  • Atari-Go [ext] http://www.cis.hut.fi/praiko/atarigo/
    • This is actually a nifty little program. It's good practice for beginning players who quite often work themselves into a bad atari. There are four levels and the fourth really thinks about the position. Great for teaching kids. Remillard

Game Clock

Detailed Descriptions

TenGo [ext] http://www.eienware.com/tengo/

TenGo is the newest recorder/editor that can read SGF files directly from Palm memory or memory card. It supports variations (even editing), labels, markers, comments etc, editing, pass... It can handle files up to 50kB.

TenGo costs $14.95 which is less than a half the price of PalmSGF which does pretty much the same and has much worse graphics.
Memory requirements: 180k + SGF files

Display: Native support for 320x320 HiRes? with pretty nice graphics.

Current version (July 7, 2004): 1.01


PilotGOne [ext] http://minas.ithil.org/pilotgone/

Being the only reason I bought a Palm in the first place, PilotGOne is a very good little SGF recorder and viewer. It is easy to use, needs little memory, and is free. For details see the PilotGOne page.

Memory requirements: 57k + roughly 2k per game

Display: Works fine with 160x160 b/w displays. No native support for 320x320, looks fine on it though (especially if you enable the "hi-res assist" mode, that comes with hi-res Palms.)

Current version (July 21, 2003): 0.8.1

PilotGone can be used with a little work to view the entire Goproblems.com database. It provides a very good platform to attempt problems. All variations are available. See the comments section of goproblems.com database for more info.

kritz


PalmSGF

PalmSGF is a good review utility. It can be used for game recording but variations are not supported. Commercial software, price $35. Supports SGF files up to 30k in size.

Memory requirements: 91k + size of SGF files

Display: High resolution required.

Hardware Requirements: Tungsten, Clie, and Zire 71 / 72 supported.

Memory Card: full support for memory card and onboard memory.

Current version (July 21, 2003): 1.1.0

malweth


MFoG Joseki Dictionary

This is a port of the Many Faces of Go joseki library for the Palm. It shows the entire board and marks moves that are joseki.

Since there is no comment given on the various moves, this is imho not so great for learning joseki. Makes a fine reference though. Maybe someone with more experience in Joseki can shed some light on the completeness of the database.

This is commercial software. More Info and a free demo can be found at [ext] http://www.smart-games.com/PalmOS.html

Memory requirements: 83k

Display: Works fine with 160x160 b/w displays. No native support for 320x320, looks fine on it though. Hi-res assist does not seem to have any effect.

Current version (July 13th, 2003): 1.21


Palm GO

This database of roughly 17000 uncommented pro games comes in two different versions, a colour hi-res version and a b/w lo-res edition.

HansWiezorke Having used the color version for over a year now, I can say the following:

  • The display is nice
  • If you want a large database of uncommented games it is a great tool.
  • The user interface is still a little unfriendly, e.g. navigation in the database is difficult, as the top entries in lists cannot be selected because the menu pops up.
  • No display of prisoners (probably made for area scoring)
  • No search by game date
  • No search by fuseki
  • I find the license model linking the software to a hardware Id a little disturbing. If your Palm breaks, you have to register (and probably pay) again. I would have preferred a link to the hotsync name, that is used by many other Palm programs.

Unfortunately there does not seem to be any further development.

This is commercial software. More Info and a free demo can be found at [ext] http://www.go4go.net/english/marketplace/palmgo/

Memory requirements: 9276k (so you need either a 16M Palm or a memory card)

Display: Two versions, 160x160 b/w looks fine, 320x320 colour looks simply absolutely wonderful. :-)

Current version (July 13th, 2003): 1.10a


PilotGO

I have not used PilotGO for quite some time. It is a program that plays go against a human opponent and is based on an early version of GnuGo.

Memory requirements: 20k

Display: 160x160 b/w. I have not tested this in colour hi-res.

Current version (July 13th, 2003): 0.31 (has not changed for years)


AIGO

AIGO is a weak Go playing program for Palm OS but is stronger than PilotGo.

Memory requrements: 180k

Display: 320x320 color and b/w. Works fine on 160x160 b/w.

Current version (Jan 23, 2004): 2.0.0


AtariGo

AtariGo is a reasonable program for playing Atari Go (the capture game) on Palm OS. It is available from [ext] http://www.cis.hut.fi/praiko/atarigo/.

Memory requrements: 22k

Display: 160x160 color and b/w.

Current version (Nov 25, 2003): 1.5


Go81

Go81 plays Go on 9x9 and 13x13 boards. It a seems slightly stronger than AIGO. Go81 is available from [ext] http://www.cis.hut.fi/praiko/go81/.

Memory requrements: 41k

Display: 160x160 color and b/w.

Current version (Jan 23, 2004): 1.5


Ogo

Ogo plays Go on 7x7, 9x9, 13x13 and 19x19 boards. It claims to be the strongest Palm Go program. Download Ogo from [ext] http://www.palmgamingworld.com/board/ogo.shtml. Ogo is shareware and only plays 9x9 unregistered.

Memory requirements: 51k

Display: 160x160 color and b/w.

Current version (July 14, 2004): 1.0



Senseis Library

This is the real treat. :-) The entire Senseis library in your shirt pocket. Browse offline everywhere you go.

My first attempt was to crunch the SLSnapshot. This is a bit unwieldy and not recommended, because the formatting is not taylored to a small screen. A more elegant approach is Senseis Library on Tour for the Palm or PocketSL for Pocket PC.

This is how I did it with the SLSnapshot:

  1. Get iSilo (a document browser for handhelds) at [ext] http://www.isilo.com.
  2. Get ISiloX (a document converter for isilo format) at [ext] http://www.isiloX.com.
  3. Install iSilo on the Palm and iSiloX on my desktop.
  4. Get the current SL Snapshot.
  5. To convert an HTML document with iSilox, add it to your current project, enter the parameters (see below) and convert it. After that you should see the final iSilo document in your Install window in Palm Desktop. It is important to check the size and specify, that you want to install on the memory card, lest you exceed the amount of available RAM.
  6. Sync your Palm, this can take a while.
  7. Enjoy SL2Go :-)

These Parameters worked for me:

  • I chose pages/S/startingpoints.html as source document.
  • Links: max depth 6, all three checkboxes unchecked.
  • Images: resize 180x180, improve contrast, compress, 2-Bit
  • Tables: include only tables at level 1 or greater.
  • Color: ignore all bg color specified on body, keep text color
  • Document: rigid, no default, home page 1
  • If you don't want the Stones logo on every page, delete stone-hello.png before converting.

This creates a file of roughly 34 MB, which you can upload to your memory card. Upload via HotSync is slow (it took me roughly 90 minutes to upload).

The discussion, here was moved to SenseisLibraryOnTour.


[1] Sebastian: I moved the relevant text from handheldsoftware] into the section "What software is there", subsection "Overview", as proposed on Go Programs / Discussion. I did not try to reconcile this with the other descriptions of software on this page. Here's the previous discussion: -- (2003-09-23)

Discussion of Software

Nico: Doesn't the following software descriptions duplicate the already existing software pages? I'd prefer to have those information merged in the relevant pages (created if appropriate), and a link to handheldsoftware.

HansWiezorke: It is indeed a little redundant. My intention in creating this page was to give a thorough overview of the Palm as a Go players companion. Since I will have some time available in the coming days, I might give the entire handheld complex a master edit.

[2] Page originated by HansWiezorke

[3] My Sony Clie PEG 675C (I am quite convinced Sony really marketed 700 models; now they stopped) had an accu problem (bad for me - and for Sony - their help/consumer-relation page is/was very inaccessible; Sony seems to avoid contact with the customer)). Hard reset did not help, it was the accu after all. Repair more costly than buying same 2nd hand model. This is the disadavantages of built-in, non-exchangeable accus. Also there was no standard cinch socket for recharging, hence requiring extra equipment as the colour screen of PalmSGF did not allow to play on the Clie for more than 2 hours. Exchangeability or standard cinch is now an important feature for me. Some Pocket PC's (I called the pocket warmers, due to their energy consumption & heat production) allowed for attaching accus with double thickness & capacity. Tderz


This is a copy of the living page "Palm Pilot" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2005 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
[Welcome to Sensei's Library!]
StartingPoints
ReferenceSection
About