Amida Alchemy Development Platform.
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Amida Alchemy is a powerful application development suite for handheld and mobile computers. PicoPeta, in synthesizing amida Alchemy(initially for the Amida Simputer) has unleashed a comprehensive and revolutionary toolkit for interface design and application development. The suite comprises development tools for rapid application prototyping and design, UI and functionality frameworks, storage, visualization and transfer utilities, text-to-speech engines, framework for multi-language support, besides drivers, toolchains and a host of other simple yet powerful tools.
Base & Library Layer
The Amida Alchemy base layer comprises the Linux Kernel and X Windows layers. This layer includes the PicoWidgets library used by almost all Amida applications. The Amida Alchemy library layer describes the Image Library, Language Interface library used in Multilingual applications and the SmartCard Library.
Top Layer
The Amida Alchemy Top Layer covers the Alchemy Window Manager for the Amida Simputer. This layer also encompasses development of Tcl/Tk based applications for Amida. Further, cross-compilation tool kits and packaging applications are covered from a developer's viewpoint.
Interface Drivers
Amida Alchemy is a complete development and deployment suite and this is characterized by the frameworks available for communicating with peripherals and other devices through Serial Port, IR, USB and SmartCard interfaces including RealTimeClock (RTC) and Accelerometer interfaces.
Databases and Application Development
In addition, Amida Alchemy provides support for MySQL and SQLite databases, flash programming, Perl and other GPL software besides the Malacca Environment. As is already known, Malacca is a browser for IML content and it is a preferred environment for applications that require quick prototyping and use of special Amida features. The Malacca browser has been brought under the Amida Alchemy framework.
One can develop software for the Amida Simputer at several levels: at the system software, device driver level at one end and applications at the other end. Due to the form factor of the Amida Simputer and its emphasis on writing as the input method, software development happens on a desktop machine (Linux) and then applications are cross compiled for the Arm before being moved to the Amida.