Lie algebra cohomology and cellphones

The Windows CE port is now working again. I can bootstrap and run tests successfully.
There are three main limitations:

• Memory usage is high because of the copying collector. I will implement mark/sweep/compact collection for the oldest generation soon.
• Network sockets and non-blocking I/O is not supported yet. I need to finish off Doug's io.windows.ce code for that to work.
• Factor must be run from inside the command prompt. The command prompt is awkward to install and use. Eventually I will port the Factor UI to Windows CE, in some cut-down form, and you'll get a nice listener instead.

You can download a binary package I threw together. It includes the command prompt, which might not be legal. To run it, you must follow these steps:

• Unzip the ZIP file on your phone; root directory is the easiest place, otherwise you'll be typing full pathnames all the time (Windows CE doesn't have a "current directory" concept).
• Run pocketconsole.arm.cab to install the console driver.
• Open a registry editor such as TRE, and change the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\Console\OutputTo to the number 0.
• Run cmd.exe.
• In the command prompt, run factor-ce.
• If you want, copy the core and extra directories from the Factor 0.91 sources, so that you can load external modules.

Annoyingly error-prone and long-winded? You bet! Soon you'll just be able to double-click on factor-ce.exe and it will start an UI listener, but for now the command prompt is as good as it gets.

To help with code input on the small dinky cellphone keyboard, I loaded some shortcut definitions. So now you can write u tools.time instead of USE: tools.time, etc.

Now, where does Lie algebra cohomology come into this? Well, I tried running extra/koszul on the phone, and it works fine. This is probably one of the least practical things I have ever done in my life, but it is a good way of testing whether a non-trivial program can run.

Playing around with extra/koszul and math stuff on the phone made me wonder. A modern cell phone has a much higher resolution (not to mention color) screen compared to a graphing calculator. Furthermore it has more RAM and a faster CPU. For example, the TI Voyage 200 is rather bulky and only has 188K of user-available RAM. My phone has more than 300 times that. The TI-89 is pretty much the same but with a different form factor. The calculators have an advantage when it comes to input, but perhaps predictive completion, handwriting recognition and the iPhone multitouch can narrow the gap there. A good CAS for cellphones and PDAs could cut into HP and TI's business...