What is the torsen thread for?

[Phil Payne]

> FWIW, I kind of dig the WAP stuff.  It appears to be a purely philanthropic
> venture benefiting a lot of folks on the list.

That is the goal.  As much technical data as possible on your hip, with automatic download of
anything you need that's missing when you ask for it.

>  Maybe an announcement that
> it is "done and ready for use" would be more convenient for some.  However,
> part of any successful development project is end-user feedback and I can
> think of no better place than the quattrolist to get some for this
> particular application.

The problem is the diversity of handsets and the lack of documentation.

WAP pages (such as http://www.isham-research.com/quattro/index.wml are not transmitted to the
end device (handset or PDA) as is - they are first compiled into a so-called 'bytecode'.
Devices implement different sizes of receiving buffer and their reaction to buffer overflows
is undefined.  I believe the Nokia 7110 is the most restrictive of all handsets, tolerating
less than 1800 bytes at one time.  Browsers differ markedly in their implementation of
features - tables are documented widely with lots of examples - but the 7110 again doesn't
support them.

Just to confuse the Russians - the 7110 emulators available on the Internet all have unlimited
bytecode buffers and support tables.  So you see how difficult it is to develop pages (called
'decks') for these devices.

Some phones have a dedicated title row - if you don't use 'title' in the card statement, the
row stays empty.  Some reuse it, so a blank 'title' makes one more line available for data.
No two phones have the same combination of characters per line and lines per screen.  Some
automatically reprogramme the phone's softkeys to act as 'back' or 'forward' keys - some
don't.  Some support the WTAI protocol, that lets you load a phone number into the phone's
dialing buffer when the user clicks on a link - some don't.  Nokia has a weird 'use number'
facility that's like nothing anyone else has.

I can't afford to test on all the different WAP-enabled devices available, and the emulators
don't show up the capacity limitations.  The quattro lists are the only way to reach a
sizeable number of people, likely to use a variety of handsets.  I've made similar appeals on
the UK bulletin board at http://www.quattroownersclub.com/forum and on the German Type 44 and
Type 81/85 lists.

And so far only one dissenting voice.  Guess who?

--
  Phil Payne
  http://www.isham-research.com/quattro
  +44 7785 302 803
  +49 173 6242039