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I'm thinking of something smaller than a laptop that i can spend my hours on the way to work doing project euler problems or such.

Any ideas?

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13 Answers13

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If you mean a programming platform, you could get a netbook like the ASUS EEE.

Or if you meant smallest programmable device, check out a PIC microcontroller:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIC_microcontroller

FlySwat
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  • This is a pretty cool piece of hardware. (after reading the article) – Ólafur Waage Nov 08 '08 at 22:03
  • The article doesn't say whether you can program one of these while riding a commuter train. :) – MusiGenesis Nov 09 '08 at 01:40
  • Atmel AVR based microcontrollers are much cooler than the PIC based ones. GCC can cross-compile your code directly for AVR, which is a huge win when porting to the AVR platform. What are project euler problems? – slacy Apr 18 '09 at 03:47
  • There are also many other netbooks out there other than the Asus machines. For examples, the Acer Aspire One is very highly regarded and inexpensive. Check out liliputing.com for more info. – slacy Apr 18 '09 at 03:48
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This may sound crazy but try pen/pencil and paper. No you can't run the code but it'll help you to not use online references so much (yes they are good but memory skills help us all) and it'll probably also help you plan your code better.

Teifion
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  • There was a great story on Daily WTF a while back about an Indian outsourcing company that could only afford one computer, so most of the coders worked on paper. "Debugging" meant looking at it really really closely. – MusiGenesis Nov 08 '08 at 22:57
  • Awesome, that's hilarious and scary at the same time. – Teifion Nov 08 '08 at 23:41
  • I would have voted you down if you hadn't reminded me of that story. :) – MusiGenesis Nov 09 '08 at 01:47
  • "Pen and Paper" is one of the "language" options you can choose in your Project Euler profile – Jimmy Jan 16 '09 at 16:47
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I've programmed directly on my HP 48G series calculator.

alt text

There's a good programming tutorial for it here. I'll have to dust it off and see if it will pass Project Euler's one-minute rule.

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Bill the Lizard
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  • Seconded. There's a lot of good programming one can do with one of these. Downside - slow CPU. – Thelema Nov 09 '08 at 02:56
  • Ah, takes me back to when I was at college at 17 (far too many years ago). I used to generate Mandelbrot and Julia sets on my Casio when the lessons got too boring. Those were the days... – BlackWasp Nov 09 '08 at 11:33
  • Thirded (or Foured, whatever). I've written quite a number of pieces of software for/on my 48GX. On the bus to college, during boring classes, on the bus back home. Anywhere, really. Even http://www.jarno.demon.nl/hp48.htm seems to still exist! ;-) – peSHIr Jan 23 '09 at 14:37
  • I was even already into functional programming back then: http://www.jarno.demon.nl/ftp/gl01.zip ;-) – peSHIr Jan 23 '09 at 14:56
  • The 50g is good for this as well - I have one, and RPL is a nice language. – new123456 Apr 02 '11 at 13:10
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If you are looking for a microcontroller or similar my advice to you would be to check out either an AVR, PIC, Arduino, or BeagleBoard.

All are relatively cheap and easy to program (the first three more so). AVR's and PIC's are types of microcontrollers that you can program with C or ASM, however you will need some type of prototyping board or similar to achieve anything. An Arduino is an AVR chip sitting on a board, so it is much easier to achieve something in a small amount of time. In addition to this they are quite popular and you can find many projects that have been done at Hackaday. Lastly BeagleBoard is a much gruntier board that will run embedded linux.

My recommendation is for the Arduino.

There are many more suggestions here.

However, If you are looking for a small laptop device to program you have plenty of options. An Asus EEE pc, HP 2133 (I believe thats the correct model), MSI Wind, MacBook Air etc etc. As other people have suggested check out some netbooks. There are also various PDA's or mobile phones that you could program, such as an Android phone or an OpenMoko phone. There are plenty of options, I suggest you find out what size you are looking for specifically and that will narrow down your choices.

Good Luck.

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mdec
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I'll take the reputation hit to say this: why not read a book or watch the scenery go by? Trying to cram more programming into your day isn't actually good for you, and may even make you less productive.

eyelidlessness
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I have used SmallBASIC on my Palm OS 5 device for a while now, and it seems to work well with most of the problems I throw at it.

BP.
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How about using a Palm with the OnboardC compiler?

epatel
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A netbook would be ideal.

A graphing calculator might be too limited for programming.

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  • My immediate reaction was "TI-82" ut then I realized it is not 1994. I'm not the only one thinking graphic calculator though. – wonderchook Nov 08 '08 at 21:58
  • Why not? I learned programming on my Casio fx 6300 which have 400 _token_ memory and some graphic capability. It is very tempting to write a game on modern ones, considering there are color models and some memory ;) – artificialidiot Nov 08 '08 at 22:28
  • The high end TI's and HP calculators will do most anything you can throw at them. Perhaps not quickly, but they'll do them. I'm familiar with the HP and it's really a fantastic portable programming platform. – Will Hartung Nov 08 '08 at 23:25
  • I quite often develop on my JVC mininote. Problems are processing speed and screen resolution but it is great on train when you are low on space. Plus you can use Visual Studio. – BlackWasp Nov 09 '08 at 11:34
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If you're talking about doing a microcontroller, there are several models of arduino boards that are very easy for someone not familiar with embedded programming.

Jason Baker
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I have a Nokia E51 with python interpreter. It's not pleasant to type with a numeric keypad at all. I think it is as small as you can get.

artificialidiot
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I have a Samsung i760 running Windows Mobile 6. The slide-out keyboard is fantastic (best mini-keyboard on any device) - I can type on it almost as fast as a normal keyboard. I mainly use it to write Oracle Lite queries in mSQL, which is borderline unusable with any other PDA keyboard.

alt text

This question led me to wonder about real programming environments for this device, so I asked another question, and one of the answers was a link to this, which is a Windows Mobile IDE for creating .NET Windows Mobile applications. You write them in C#, even.

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MusiGenesis
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Netbooks are smaller than your typical laptop and have plenty of power.

Todd
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It's pretty subjective. I code on my commute using a 15.4" laptop and I find it quite limiting.

I could still work at 13", but the limitations would be getting so large I'd already be questioning if it's worth it. Anything smaller would be right out.

But then I tend to work with lots of windows open. Multiple editors, docs, browsers etc. Cutting back on that eats into my productivity. At home I have a 30" display. At work I have 2x 24" displays.

If you tend to work mostly in one window, rarely consult docs and other apps etc, you could probably go smaller.

It depends so much on the type of person you are, what you are comfortable with, the way you work, what you are working in and with... the list goes on.

My guess is that for most developers 13" is going to be the smallest before it gets so frustrating that you're better off just listening to podcasts or something - but YMMV - and will!

philsquared
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