Gentouch 78 - Scripting?

[silicaroach]

I am not new to programming (Matlab/C/Python) but am completely new to mobile devices. I was hoping to use the Gentouch 78 to try programming in the Android OS. I have a Gentouch 78 from Kmart with Android 2.1 but have not installed any updates (because none of my desktops (Win2000 & XP) recognize the device).

With no desktop connectivity, I came across a seemingly easy way to get started - SL4A previously the Android Scripting Environment - android-scripting - Project Hosting on Google Code

But it isn't clear to me how to install and run such an app. There's an APK and I can get that loaded and installed but it seems the app is run from a terminal. While, I can get the terminal emulator in Dev Tools to launch, I can't seem to input anything to the command line.

It's all kind of frustrating so any guidance would be appreciated.

PS - How can I get the browser to refresh a page?

 

[Swould333]

IN THAT TERMINAL PRESS AND HOLD THE MENU KEY(ON THE BACK) THE SOFT YEYBOARD WILL POP UP..
I SUGGEST USING A DIFFERENT TERMINAL THOUGH .. THAT ONE DOESN'T SUPPORT BACKSPACING... YOU CAN GET ONE ON THE ALTERNATE MARKET APP THAT AUGEN HAS POSTED FOR USE INSTEAD OF THE ANDROID MARKET
THE ONE ON THE AND APP STORE, ALTERNATE MARKET PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED, IS CALLED TERRMINAL EMULATOR MAGIC... A FELLOW ON ONE OF THE E-READER THREADS ON THIS FORUM ADDED AN ATTATCMENT FOR "ANDROID TERMINAL".. THAT'S THE ONE I USE ON MY MOTO DROID..IT'S GOOD TOO...

I HIGHLY RECOMEND DOING THE UPDATES AND THE LIKE BEFORE GETTING INTO IT UNLES YOU'RE WANTING TO WORK OFF THE RAW KERNAL THAT CAME ON IT.. THE INITIAL RELAESE SUX... THE LATEST IS ACTUALLY PRETTY DECENT..

WHEN YOU DO THE UPDATES THAT ARE PROVIDED ON THE AUGEN WEBSITE... THEY HAVE WINDOWS DRIVERS INCLUDED IN THE ZIPPED UPDATE FILE...

Updates

^THE LINK TO THE UPDATES PAGE ON AUGEN'S SITE...

PLUS YOU MAY WANNA CHECK OUT THE XDA DEVELOPERS SITE THAT'S LISTED HERE...

http://www.androidtablets.net/forum/augen-gentouch/424-augen-gentouch-information.html

LOTS OF INFO THAT'LL PROB HELP YA ALONG...

I'D ALSO HIGHLY RECOMEND ROOTING THE DEVICE IF YOU PLAN ON DOING ANY MAJOR COMMADS FROM TERRMINAL... ANDROID IS NATIVELY "LOCKED" AND YOU HAVE TO ROOT THE DEVICE TO DO MAJOR EDITING OF ANY SYS FILES AT LEAST FROM THE DEVICE IT'S SELF... I THINK YOU CAN DO ALOT MORE WITH THE ANDROID SDK THROUGH ADB COMMANDS

AND IF THIS IS YOUR FIRST ANDROID DEVICE I'D SUGGEST CHECKIG OVER THE WIKI PAGES IN THE ABOVE LINK TOO.. THEY HAVE QUITE A BIT OF INFO THAT'S HELPFULL AS TO GETTING THE DEVICE UP AND RUNING SMOOTHLY...

IF YOU PLAN ON DOING ANY SERIOUS DEVELOPMENT FOR A BROAD RANGE OF ANDROID DEVICES YOU REALLY NEED TO LOOK INTO THIS SITE... Android Developers
I'D SAY THE "DEV GUIDE" TAB AT THE TOP WOULD BE THE BEST PLACE TO START
I HATE TO SAY IT BUT THE GENTOUCH IS A LITTLE LIMITED AS FAR AS FULL ANDROID CAPABILITIES.. BUT IT'S PROB GOOD STARTER.. THE SDK THAT'S ON PREVIOUSLY LISTED SITE HAS OPTIONS TO DOWNLOAD DIFFERENT DEVICE ENVIRONMENTS.. PRETTY MUCH EMULATORS FOR DIFFERENT DEVICES, IF I'M NOT MISTAKEN... I'D SAY IT'S A DEFFINATE MUST FOR TRUE MARKET DEVELOPMENT..

HOPE THIS HELPS..

 

[mindwave]

wow, nice caps key

 

[mindwave]

BUT on the of chance you want to try this (as I may) heres the APK, in case your market isnt working

well ok, I TRIED, website kept saying invalid file type

so email me if you need it oy!

 

[Swould333]

sorry for caps.. I work as a cnc programer.. and the machine code we do has to be all caps.. i've just gotten used to it... i know that perturbs some people... don't know why.. it's all just lettering and words caps or not..lol

here's the terminal i use on my Droid

View attachment $jackpalandroidterm.zip

...

 

[silicaroach]

Thanks all esp. for the quick reply.

Installed upgrade as suggested. Lost some functionality and have two immediate glaring odd problems:

a) I can connect via usb to my xp machine but while THREE new drives show up clicking on them results in an error ("insert disk in to drive ..."); and
b) the browser opens up in Catalan vice english ?! Easy to work around but why is it like that at all?

I haven't checked the forums for this yet so these aren't questions just observations. Cheers.

 

[Swould333]

Do a pull down on the notification bar when you have your GT connected to the pc... you'll see an option to mount your device it'll say "usb connected(internal)" tap it and it'll connect ...the one that mounts is the nand flash sector of the device... if doen't show an option for "usb connected(external)", this would be your sd card... then you have go to the settings menu "SD card & tablet-pc storage"... click on "unmount sd card".. a notification will pop up on the notification bar saying "safe to remove card".. or some thing similar... once that is done.. eject your sd card by pushing it in, you don't need to remove it... then push it back in till it clicks and the device then should give an audible tone and a dialouge in the notification bar that the sd card is being mounted... once you do that the "usb connected(external)" option should be in the notification drop down menu.. tap it and it'll mount your sd through windows and allow you to drag and drop files to the card....

if they don't give you options to mount the sectors then more than likely you have the "usb debugging" turned off under the "development" tab under "applications" in the settings menu...

 

[silicaroach]

Thank you Swould333. Gotta tell you I would _not_ have found that. I have read my little booklet nowhere did it mention the notification bar nor that you can pull it down. With your hint I figured it out and all is now well ... mostly. As I said, I've no experience with mobile devices and so all I have is the tablet and its booklet which are not particularly helpful past a certain level. I'll post elsewhere so as not to go off topic. Cheers.

 

[Swould333]

Thank you Swould333. Gotta tell you I would _not_ have found that. I have read my little booklet nowhere did it mention the notification bar nor that you can pull it down. With your hint I figured it out and all is now well ... mostly. As I said, I've no experience with mobile devices and so all I have is the tablet and its booklet which are not particularly helpful past a certain level. I'll post elsewhere so as not to go off topic. Cheers.

NP.. glad to help.. that's why they call it a community,right?...

there are a ton of videos on Youtube on tinkering with the android system and getting familiar with it.. some aspects of using it are universal and aren't device dependent so you may get a heads up on some other functionality there... but if you're unsure i'd deff ask in a forum or icq before going forward..

and if you're planning on getting into hackig the op sys on this thing.. I HIGHLY recomend installing the clockwork recovery listed on the wiki page i refer you to earlier.. it has an option to do what's called a Nandroid back up.. a script from the olden age of the beginings of Android.. it will allow you to back up the entire sys apps, settings, THE ENTIRE SYS.. and if you do some thing that frags the tablet you just reboot into the recovery doa restore and you're back to what you had on your last restore...

 

[carlsmith]

If you use SL4A, you'll need to install at least one interpretor. You can do it from within the app itself. Once you do that, you'll have a folder full off example scripts you can edit. You get an editor and there's an API browser in the editor. There's instructions online.