Peek Plc’s Coventry-based Husky Computers Ltd has announced what it calls the first fourth generation language and relational database for handheld computer applications. The announcement conjures up visions of programmers walking the streets and fields writing code on their Husky handheld computers as they hum I was born under a wandering star. However, the software offers a software development environment for handheld systems developers working on the desktop as well as an integrated management system for handheld system users. To develop the software Husky got together with Software Products International and came up with HandHeld Access III for the HuskyHunter 16 handheld, tailored down from Software Product’s Open Access III package. Husky is keen to get more software up and running on its handheld computers and for this reason it chose a standard desktop package and reduced it for the handheld environment, thus making it much quicker and less expensive for people to develop programs for small systems in a niche market where there are only a limited number of users.
Hunter 16 gets 4Mb
The whole system has three elements: Handheld Access III, which is a run-time version stored in a 512Kb EPROM on board the Husky Hunter 16, the MS-DOS 3.3 desktop version of Open Access III, and the Husky OAIII Support package containing a range of Husky utilities. Handheld Access III, including the 512Kb EPROM, costs UKP250 and is available from March. At the same time as the software announcement Husky launched its 4Mb version of the Hunter 16, the extra memory enabling larger applications on the handheld. This 4Mb version costs UKP3,000. Husky says that its machines are catering for a completely different market from those of, say, Poqet Computer Corp, which caters more for the mobile office worker than for the forestry or utilities worker. This seems a somewhat specious argument, since although the Husky range is ruggedised, has a screen to enable readings in poor light conditions and is designed for use by those who have never used a personal computer, this particular Open Access software initiative has been launched under the slogan out of office computing. The idea being that more resellers become aware of how handhelds can be used with host computer systems. There is clearly going to be an increasing overlap between the two notebook systems over time – for example, is a sales rep a computilliterate blue collar worker requiring a ruggedised handheld or a whizz-kid white collar worker who cannot bear to be parted from her Lotus 1-2-3? More to the point, which system’s software is better integrated into the central data processing environment? The skirmish for the user born under a wandering star is just about to happen.
