1SRC Interview - Alex Pruss

One the benefits of using a Palm OS powered handheld or smartphone is the ever-expanding library of software.   Last week, I had an opportunity to sit down (virtually) and talk with 1SRC member and software developer Alex Pruss.

Many of us use Alex’s software everyday.   His library of software includes popular titles from FontSmoother to ChronMemo to NVBackup.   

1SRC : First of all, Alex, I wanted to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk to us.   I wanted to start off with a question I ask all of my guests.   Can you tell us what your first Palm OS device was and how you first became interested in handheld computing?

Pruss : I got a Clie NX70V for academic purposes (basically, to run Plucker with etext databases). Before that I had a couple of Sharp 7xx series Wizards, and did a lot of work to produce an unofficial SDK for them.

1SRC : Are you a software developer by trade, or is programming for the Palm OS a hobby of yours? How long have you been writing software for the Palm?

Pruss : Hobby. Since 2002 or so.

1SRC : You’ve developed a number of very popular applications for the Palm platform, including: FontSmoother, MySkin (formerly SkinDIA), NVBackup, PalmIshido and now ChronMemo.

Pruss : I'm also on the core teams for PalmBible+ and Plucker. :-)

1SRC : What has been your favorite (software development) project to work on so far?

Pruss : Maybe FontSmoother. It was really neat to see it work--kind of surprising.

1SRC : Can you tell us how you get ideas for software and then go about developing them?

Pruss : Much of the time, I notice that I need or want something, and then if I have an idea how to do it without a big investment of time, I write it.

1SRC : Are there any other projects that you are working on that you can tell us about?

Pruss : I'm currently optimizing PalmBible+ search capabilities. I can make it about 15% faster, but I think that with more work I can make it about twice as fast.

1SRC : You've written a lot of really interesting and innovative applications and utilities for the Palm OS platform. But you also wrote a game, PalmIshido. What was it like writing a game and how did that project differ from the others? Is it more challenging to develop a game rather than a utility?

Pruss : I cared a lot more about esthetics. It was a different kind of project that way.

1SRC : How does it feel to have written a number of applications that Palm users all over the world are using?

Pruss : It's nice. :-)

1SRC : What is your opinion of the future of the Palm platform?

Pruss : It might just be a matter of time before x86 handheld PCs come down in weight and price, and up in battery life, enough that the Palm platform will be largely obsolete. On the other hand, people seem to be interested in smartphones, and they may not want a full PC. So who knows?

I think one of the big challenges is to develop innovative user interfaces that work for people on the go. PalmOS was very well thought out in this way, though some of that elegance has been lost in keyboard-centric devices (which I actually personally prefer, though they are less elegant) like Treos. The iPhone interface sounds very promising.

But the problem for which the best solution is not yet clear is for a good text input method for small devices. Graffiti is technically neat but is beaten for ease of use and speed by on-screen keyboards like Fitaly and ATOMIK (MessagEase is also fast, but I don't know about its ease of use, never having learned it). Good handwriting recognition would be easy to use, but slow (especially for those of us who don't handwrite anymore). On-screen keyboards are, in turn, beaten by small hardware keyboards like the one found in Treos, but even these are not ideal. IBM's Shapewrite is promising, but doesn't seem to be adopted by anybody. Voice-to-text is not a great solution for noisy, crowded areas like subways. I don't know which way this will go.

1SRC : Perhaps a device that gives the user to choose the input method based on the current environmental conditions? If we look at the iPhone as an example, it has a digital keyboard and a touch screen. Adding a virtual ink interface like CIC’s Jot! could have merit.

Pruss : I don't know about that. Tapping is so much faster than handwriting--the best handwriting based method scores are at around 40 wpm, while tapping an optimized keyboard or using a thumb keyboard yields top speeds of 78-84 wpm. [See the Dom Perignon III Speed Contest ]

Graffiti was very cool. But I think it is a failed experiment speed-wise. I don't know if recognition of ordinary printing or cursive handwriting could make for anything faster than Graffiti. I may be biased by the fact that I hate handwriting.

1SRC : What is the one single feature you would like to see included in the Palm OS that isn’t there today?

Pruss : A better-input solution. I just don't know which one that would be. My own myKbd ATOMIK is pretty good, but not ideal.

1SRC : One of the things that I see as being important to a platform’s success is the sense of community, in terms of both the software developers and the customers. 1SRC seems to have a strong community of both. What is your opinion of the community at 1SRC and in general?

Pruss : It's a wonderful enthusiastic community that really supports independent developers like myself and Dmitry [Grinberg].

1SRC : When you are not busy with work or developing new applications, what do you like to do to relax?

Pruss : The software development is what I do to relax. :-)

To learn more about the great Palm OS software that has been developed by Alex Pruss, make sure you check out ZL Themes.com .   You can also find Alex's software on PalmGear.com .