Q: Do you plan to offer score entry via Palm Pilots or other PDAs?
A. No.
This question comes up from time to time.
In 2009, I replied in a
thread on Ted Murphy's IDPA forum, as did several other folks.
The gist of my post there is:
- My first issue is that I have a "real" job (medical software). Although I do charge for my IDPA stuff, it's very much of a sideline and I have
limited time and energy to put into further development.
- The expense. Used devices are sometimes available, but even that could represent a substantial investment for large matches with, say, 9 or 10 bays
- The requirement to give sanctioned-match competitors a hard copy of their stage scores.
- The computer illiteracy of some shooters, not to mention eyesight challenges with electronic devices in bright sun or in rain. For some SOs, punching
info into a Palm would be a lot slower than writing on a score sheet.
- Questions of equipment reliability in rain or when dropped, keeping batteries charged, portable printers printing, etc.
In summer of 2009, I received an email
from the gentleman who runs stagescore.com who provides PDAs and software for USPSA matches.
I told him it isn't economically feasible for me to spend time on such a project, but I gave him some information on the data files
used by ForScore.
I haven't heard whether he's planning to develop his own PDA scoring solution for IDPA.