PalmSurv (response)

[phil cash cash]

Greetings ILAT,
I received this message with regard to my inquiry (of Jul 3 2008) on the
PalmSurv software for Palm devices.  The message bearer gave me permission to
post his message to ILAT for all of you to consider as well.  (See below)
Phil Cash Cash
UofA

----- Forwarded message from ed.barker at gmail.com -----
    Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2008 23:11:22 -0700
    From: Ed Barker 
 Subject: PalmSurv response

Hello Phil,

Your post to the ILAT list was brought to my attention.  Thanks for your
interest in the PalmSurv application for phonetic word list transcription on
the Palm.

I was the software development lead for the PalmSurv project, and also
worked to deploy it with linguistic research teams in the field (Central
Africa and Southeast Asia) in 2004.  I continue to support the project when
people send questions my way, but it has been largely stable for the last
few years.

If you decide to move ahead with evaluating PalmSurv, may I suggest that you
first try it on a Palm OS Simulator?  This will help you determine whether
you pursue purchase of a device.  For instructions, see the section entitled
"Palm Simulator Setup" on the PalmSurv walkthrough page

.

If you do decide to use a device, I would highly recommend:

1) Using a relatively modern device with a 320x320 pixel screen (older
models used 160x160) -- PalmSurv has high-resolution font capabilities that
make for a vastly improved experience on modern devices.  When we were
deploying in SE Asia, our "flagship" Palm device was the Tungsten E.
2) Acquiring an external keyboard that is compatible with your Palm.  My
favorite was a Belkin infrared keyboard--you could use it with about any
Palm, as physical connectors were not required.  PalmSurv has been optimized
with various key combination mappings to allow fast entry of IPA
characters--users who learned the key sequences found that their pace of
phonetic transcription matched that of the pen-and-paper approach.
3) Get used to using the SD card backup feature: After you've entered some
data, simply insert an SD card while PalmSurv is active, and your word lists
will be named incrementally and backed up to the card in a few seconds.

I'd be interested to hear your feedback as to PalmSurv's usability its
suitability for your purposes.  If you have questions or feature requests,
let me know.

Best regards,
Ed Barker

----- End forwarded message -----
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