What's with the lack of new pocket programs?

I try to check the CC forums every day, and I never see any changes in the 'Programs -> Pocket Computer' section. Why is this? Pocket computers open up something incredible, and no one is utilizing the mobility of them anymore.

Could everybody please focus more on pocket computers? I would love to see a rednet raycaster shooter or a realtime network mapper or an RDP application or something for them.

The fun of programming for no profit at all is working out an idea. When nobody has an idea to use pocket computers for, then they really have no idea for a use of it. The programs come on it's own eventually, just keep checking I guess.

Also, if you want those programs, there is your challenge :P/>

For me it's the resolution. I struggle enough with 51x19 pixels, so having the 21x20 pixels on a pocket computer makes writing code for them an ugly chore. It's a real shame to be honest, I was looking forward to them coming out so much, but now they're here that excitement has died down a lot.

They're handy as portable "security managers" - allowing you to toggle door locks or track players "on the go", that sort of thing. Outside of that "utility" niche there's not much else they can do, even with another computer aiding them over a network, that a regular computer can't do better on its own. There's not much justification to fill an inventory slot with one so that you can play games, for example.

Network mapping isn't all that feasible in ComputerCraft. The closest we've got to a "ping" command is rednet.lookup(), which only gets responses from systems that've been rigged up for specific purposes (and if you've gone to the effort of setting that sort of thing up, you probably already know the layout like the back of your hand). As for remote desktop access, I assume nsh already takes that as far as it's possible to go.

A way to increase their screen size would make them a lot more "desirable". I don't feel that this'd "unbalance" them, considering that their peripheral support is likely going to remain limited. Currently, their only gimmicks are their portability, and the fact that only one user can access them at a time - there's only so much you can code around those.

The problem is in the general usefulness of PDAs, in that… they aren't really useful. 90% of the time, just carrying around a computer with a wireless modem will accomplish everything you can do with a PDA. Obviously doing it this way is clunky as hell and not nearly as convenient (which is why they were implemented, I imagine) but in terms of usability, there just isn't much reason to have a PDA at all, and there's not much a PDA can do that a normal computer can't. The only difference is in convenience.

The best way I can think of to give PDAs an actual purpose is being able to view the screen without focusing on the device, like you can with maps. This has probably been suggested once or twice before, and I haven't dug into the mod as of recent, but things like this would actually make PDA programs relevant.