Upcoming PockEmul on Android

[Bill (Smithville NJ)]

Remy, the developer of the wonderful emulator for pocket computers has
just posted an update on the future Android version design specifically
for the touch screen. While there has been a port for the emulator for
Android, it has not been the best of interfaces (in my view). So a version
specifically for Android would be nice. Please see his post:

PockEmul

It appears that he is planning on releasing two versions: a limited
version that would be free and a full version that would cost.

I have been using his emulator for many years and do not have any
problem with paying for a full version on Android. Especially if it's
optimized for the platform.

Meanwhile, the full version 1.4.3 is available for free to run on windows:

PockEmul 1.4.3

If you like pocket PC's but can't afford to own them, then this is a fantastic
way to experience them. He has included a lot of the favorites from Sharp,
Radio Shack, Canon, Casio , HP. Some are still a Work In Progress.
Many of the accessories to the computers are emulated including
memory modules, rom modules, printers, plotters, interfaces, etc.

Bill
Smithville, NJ

[Vincent Weber]

Thanks a lot, I'm looking forward to it !
Please continue to keep us posted :
Cheers

[Valentin Albillo]

.
Same here, thanks a lot for the news.

I've used PockEmul/Win extensively. It never had a decent UI and gave a lot of problems and crashes (old version, running on Win XP) but nevertheless I used it a lot and was very hepful to develop and test programs and perform calculations in a variety of pocket computers without having to use the physical units in my collection, the vast majority of which are preserved in sealed PVC bags out of light and moisture.

And yes, please keep us informed. I'm sure to buy the Android version if the reviews are good enough. Let's hope its author does care for the people buying his product and fixes bug reports or at least answers us, not like some other developer of Android emulators that never fixes anything and further completely ignores any attempts at communication

Thanks again and regards.
V.

[remy]

Thank you Bill for this post.

I am the developper of PockEmul and i can add some informations.

PockEmul was created in year 2000 as a hobby and the main goal for me was to add always more and more emulated models.
I must admin, the overall quality of PockEmul was BAD. a lot of bugs and no documentation.

I have now decided to transform PockEmul in a a real professional application.
It tooks me 4 months to fixed all majors issues on a limited perimeter, only 6 models, no extensions, ...
PockEmul Lite is born, and is released since yesterday on the Play Store.
I will release PockEmul Pro between September an the end of the year in differents release, extending the perimeter on each.
I need time to test and fixe all issues.

Be assured that the new challenge for me is to make a real production release. It is a businness challenge not a hobby anymore (well, a little bit yet).

If all goes well, here is the roadmap :

• 06/28/2019 : PockEmul Lite on the Google Play Store
• 09/01/2019 : PockEmul Pro V1
• 10/15/2019 : PockEmul Lite IOS (already running on my dev platform)
• 10/15/2019 : PockEmul Pro V2
• 12/31/2019 : PockEmul Pro V3 ( Android and IOS)
• 06/01/2020 : PockEmul Cloud
  

PockEmul Pro ( Android or IOS ) will give access to PockEmul Windows and OSX.
PockEmul Cloud will bring the capability to exchange sessions between platform and to create community.

There is a dedicated GitHub repository to collect all issues and features request

Thank you for your passion and have fun.

Best regards

Rémy
PockEmul web site
Facebook Page

[Valentin Albillo]

.
Hi, Rémy:

(06-29-2019 09:48 AM)remy Wrote:  I am the developper of PockEmul and i can add some informations.[...]

Great !

Quote:I must admin, the overall quality of PockEmul was BAD. a lot of bugs and no documentation.

Indeed. I suffered both yet that didn't kill it for me, it was still pretty useful to me. And it was for free.

Quote:I have now decided to transform PockEmul in a a real professional application.

Excellent. If you will, a few well-meaning comments:

(1) It won't be a professional application at all unless it's pretty well debugged when it's finally released to the users (i.e.: don't make the first batch of paying users into a bunch of beta-testers, a.k.a. Guinea pigs). Of course some bugs will still appear no matter what, even serious ones, but there's a difference between some and lots. If I pay for it, which I gladly will, I won't tolerate wasting my time doing the debugging for you.

(2) It won't be a professional application at all unless it's pretty well documented. I've been doing professional applications for many decades, either as an analyst/programmer or as project leader, and I'll tell you that no paying client would tolerate getting an application without extensive documentation of all kinds, period. If I pay for your application I want full documentation, the guessing trial-and-error game is not for me.


Lots of people releasing software find programming the thing very funny and exciting but debugging it and most especially documenting it, not so much. If their product is for free, then so be it, I can always throw it to the trash bin and I won't lose a cent, just my time (which is worth considerably more than a cent so I'm likely to never again try another product from such sloth).

But if their product requires payment, and I pay, and then the product is seriously buggy and makes me waste my time and effort, and the product is also lacking any decent documentation whatsoever and makes me waste my time trying things, then the individual that released it that way, and further doesn't ever correct the bugs and even further utterly ignores his paying customers and doesn't answer any requests for information or bug corrections because allegedly he finds it boring and prefers to spend his time on new exciting projects, then that individual is not a professional programmer and has not released a professional application.

I have one particular individual in mind, of course, and you're not him. Please never be like him in that regards, simply do abide by both points (1) and (2) above.

Quote:Thank you for your passion and have fun.

Thanks to you for your enthusiasm and your commitment to deliver a professional product. Here's hoping you actually do and your enthusiasm never fades away.

Have a nice weekend.
V.
.

[cdmackay]

Just had a quick play on Android, looks very good, thank you very much. I will buy the Pro version to support further development, when it’s available.

Pleased to see the Casio fx-8000G included in the Lite version; also pleased to find I could remember how to drive it despite not having hands on my physical 7000G for decades

Looking forward to new developments.

[HrastProgrammer]

Hello,

TI-57 emulation in PockEmul is based on the source from my TI-57E emulator, right?

I don't want to be picky but, as far as I remember, I never gave the permission for this source to be used in a commercial product.

Or am I missing something here?

Best regards.
HrastProgrammer

[Massimo Gnerucci]

HP 41C

There's something wrong in lowercase alpha: if I press "shift A" through "shift E" I see "Z[\]^" rather than "abcde".
When first started, after selecting this model, I see "@@@@@@@@@@@@" rather than "0.0000"

And the batteries always lasted for a very long time in all my 41s, no stock necessary...

[remy]

(07-10-2019 11:34 AM)Massimo Gnerucci Wrote:  HP 41C

There's something wrong in lowercase alpha: if I press "shift A" through "shift E" I see "Z[\]^" rather than "abcde".
When first started, after selecting this model, I see "@@@@@@@@@@@@" rather than "0.0000"

Thank you for your feedback.
You're right, there is an issue with lowercase in the HP-41. I work on it right now.

For the second point it is already in my bug list.

thanks again.

regards

Rémy

[remy]

(07-10-2019 11:11 AM)HrastProgrammer Wrote:  Hello,

TI-57 emulation in PockEmul is based on the source from my TI-57E emulator, right?

I don't want to be picky but, as far as I remember, I never gave the permission for this source to be used in a commercial product.

Or am I missing something here?

Best regards.
HrastProgrammer

Hello,

We had several exchanges of personal messages between Hrast and me.
Hrast is right, PockEmul code is base on TI-57E source package he sent me several years ago. It was not clear for me that he's against commercial use and I've assured him that PockEmul PRO will not use his source code.
I will rewrite entrierly the CPU core emulation and I will not use his modified ROM anymore.
I should have check this with Hrast before pushing PockEmul on the Play Store.

Regards

Rémy

[Vincent Weber]

Hi,
Wasn't the pro version of pockemul for Android supposed to come yesterday ? Any news ? It is not on the play store, but I know that Google changed its policy and it's a real mess right now... Is this the cause ?

Thanks a lot and regards

[Thomas Okken]

When I contacted Google tech support because Free42 2.5 was taking unusually long to appear in the Play Store, I was informed that "it usually takes 2 to 72 hours." That was rather Orwellian, in "We are at war with Eastasia and we have always been at war with Eastasia" style, given that in reality, it had never taken more than two hours until then. Another bald-faced lie in their part was that "established developers" would not be affected by the new review policy. Free42 has been in the Play Store, formerly Android Market, for more than 10 years.

The latest news is that they are saying that the approval process now takes "up to seven days or more," in true cable company "up to 50 Mb/s or more" style. They have clearly f---ed this new thing up completely, but are too chicken to admit it.

https://www.xda-developers.com/google-pl...apps-time/

[remy]

(09-02-2019 09:37 AM)Vincent Weber Wrote:  Hi,
Wasn't the pro version of pockemul for Android supposed to come yesterday ? Any news ? It is not on the play store, but I know that Google changed its policy and it's a real mess right now... Is this the cause ?

Thanks a lot and regards

Hello,

I am simply in late :-(
So many tests and fixes.
It is now a matter of days , perhaps one week.
What do you mean about Google policy ? 64 bits releases (PockEmul is already fully compliant) ?

Here is a limited list of changes about PockEmul Pro:

• No more Pockemul Pro. PockEmul Lite become PockEmul with inApps purchases.
• No more Ad videos rewards. I love the concept of iBattery but honestly, it has absolutely no return of values and i think it is a brake to PockEmul growth.
• An advance pack, which brings severals features. In the future I'll add all minors features to this module:
  • Load/ Save sessions.
  • Share sessions.
  • Share display.
  • Multi concurrent emulations.
  • Connection management which is mandatory to emulate extension connected to the calculator (Prinsters, memory modules, ...)
  • CPU speed management.
  • ...
    
• inApps product purchase by product families. Not all products will be available immediately. I need time to make the emulation robust. I plan to release 2 or 3 products by months.
  The first released products will be :
  • Sharp PC-125x serie
  • Sharp PC-126x serie
  • Sharp PC-140x serie
  • Casio PB-1000
  • Sharp printers
  • Hp-41 printer
    
• All others products (not yet available) are listed in PockEmul Store and users can vote to change the priority in the roadmap. In fact all emulations are still developed, it is only matter of tests and fixes.
• I am currently developing the HP-48 emulation.
  The average age of PockEmul users is in the 45 to 60 years old range (I'm 52 :-) ).
  With the HP-48, I would like to bring 35-45 years old users to PockEmul.
  It will be part of the free core package. I don't emulate memory slots for now, and it seems to be working very well.But emulation is in the details, I have found a bug in the Sharp CPU emulation 15 years after the first PockEmul release :-).
  I don't know if I'll add it in the next release in alpha mode. As it is free, why not ?
  

Thank you for using PockEmul and please give me your feedbacks.

regards

Rémy

[Thomas Okken]

(09-02-2019 11:09 AM)remy Wrote:  What do you mean about Google policy ? 64 bits releases (PockEmul is already fully compliant) ?

No, not the 64-bit requirement. A couple of weeks ago, Google started reviewing apps before allowing them to show up in the Play Store. I think it's basically the same kind of process that Apple have always done in their App Store. And Google appears to have grossly underestimated how much manpower they would need to review the constant stream of app submissions, so there are long delays, which appear to be getting worse and worse.

[Vincent Weber]

Hi Remy,

Many thanks for your prompt reply !

I have to confess something, I love Pockemul, but I really hated the "i-battery" concept... so, good ridance for me

As for priorities, the ones you listed are great, I also would love the TI-95 (great machine !), the TI-74, the casio PB-2000C, the Sharp PC-1600 too.

When you listed the HP-41 printer, does it include also the software / RAM modules (Advantage, PPC, CCD, Hepax,...) ?

Question regarding the TI-57, I think you said you will change the core, I know that for some time the only ROM available was from a patent, and I was still a buggy one, with a loop (RST ?) concern if memory serves, has the ROM been patched in the current lite release / will be patched in the future release ?

Also, is the Sharp PC-1211 simulator going to make it ?

Final question, great to have the Casio fx-8000g, any availaibility for the fx-4000p ? smaller and cuter

Edit: forgot to ask about the 48, is it really useful to spend some time on it (vs. other models) as emu48 is quite great ?

Many thanks in advance and cheers,

Vincent

[mfleming]

(09-02-2019 10:26 AM)Thomas Okken Wrote:  The latest news is that they are saying that the approval process now takes "up to seven days or more," in true cable company "up to 50 Mb/s or more" style. They have clearly f---ed this new thing up completely, but are too chicken to admit it.

Could this have something to do with the recent removal of long-time app CamScanner due to its inclusion of a malware trojan in its ad server? Google has long been very sloppy in regards to security. Try googling (yes, my bad) "camscanner trojan" for details.

[rprosperi]

(09-02-2019 02:27 PM)mfleming Wrote:  

(09-02-2019 10:26 AM)Thomas Okken Wrote:  The latest news is that they are saying that the approval process now takes "up to seven days or more," in true cable company "up to 50 Mb/s or more" style. They have clearly f---ed this new thing up completely, but are too chicken to admit it.

Could this have something to do with the recent removal of long-time app CamScanner due to its inclusion of a malware trojan in its ad server? Google has long been very sloppy in regards to security. Try googling (yes, my bad) "camscanner trojan" for details.

Absolutely a coincidence. But, it will take up to seven days or more to verify that...

Also, tight security makes it much harder to collect user info, harder to advertise, harder to monetize these services. We need a sniglet for deliberately lax security... wait... googl-ish?

[Thomas Okken]

Free42 2.5.5 just made it through the Play Store approval process in five days. Based on that one data point, it seems that Google are starting to get that process running more smoothly now. It should probably also be mentioned that Free42, being an "all ages" app, is in the category that takes the longest to verify.

So, hopefully the nightmare scenario of releasing a version with a fatal bug and then not being able to get an update out for weeks won't materialize after all.

[remy]

(09-12-2019 06:19 AM)Thomas Okken Wrote:  Free42 2.5.5 just made it through the Play Store approval process in five days. Based on that one data point, it seems that Google are starting to get that process running more smoothly now. It should probably also be mentioned that Free42, being an "all ages" app, is in the category that takes the longest to verify.

So, hopefully the nightmare scenario of releasing a version with a fatal bug and then not being able to get an update out for weeks won't materialize after all.

Hi,
I just push PockEmul on the Play Store and it has been approved in less than 30 minutes :-)

Rémy

[Massimo Gnerucci]

(09-18-2019 04:12 PM)remy Wrote:  

(09-12-2019 06:19 AM)Thomas Okken Wrote:  Free42 2.5.5 just made it through the Play Store approval process in five days. Based on that one data point, it seems that Google are starting to get that process running more smoothly now. It should probably also be mentioned that Free42, being an "all ages" app, is in the category that takes the longest to verify.

So, hopefully the nightmare scenario of releasing a version with a fatal bug and then not being able to get an update out for weeks won't materialize after all.

Hi,
I just push PockEmul on the Play Store and it has been approved in less than 30 minutes :-)

Rémy

And it already updated on my phone. :)
Regarding HP 41 emulation: I have set flags 28 & 29; when I press PRGM I see ",END, REG 219"
Shouldn't it be ".END. REG 219" despite decimal point setting?

Thank you!