Find It is a Jeode application for the Sharp Zaurus PDA, Jeode being
a Java virtual machine which is tailored for the limited resources of this device.
The application is trivial to install (then again most Zaurus applications are),
and installed cleanly to a 256MB CompactFlash card (unlike a surprising number of Zaurus applications, which
insist that they are installed to RAM).
Unusually, the program doesn't take up the full screen; merely
the top half of the screen is used by Find It, presumably to allow you to have the virtual keyboard to be displayed at the same time
So, what does this Java utility do? Well, it performs some of the functions
of grep, without you having to remember the right flags to use. There's been an enourmous amount written about
GUI apps in general. Console programs invariably have far more functionality, but if you're like me, it can be hard to
remember the exact command to do what you want, without having to resort to the man page. However, GUI applications usually
offer reduced functionality, but are easier to use.
Find It performs some of the actions of the famous 'grep' console program. It
searches the Zaurus for text, Word .doc files looking for matches to your search criteria. Organisation has
never been my strong point, and I generally find that despite good intentions, files are left everywhere. Even on
a Zaurus I've been saving some files by accident to RAM, some to different directories to CF cards. Here's where this
program comes in useful.
The first screenshot shows the result of searching for files that have the word
comet in them. Find It found a match in three of the files, conveniently searching both the RAM and the CF card for
matches. The screenshot below shows the result of searching for the file name only, which is also handy in locating files
that have gone astray.
This is a tiny application, at an inexpensive price. It isn't a must buy app, but
if you're hate a shell prompt, it's a useful little utility. It is a bit too limited though for my liking, and has a few
bugs.
Thinking of switching to Linux? Check out our Linux Equivalents to
Windows Software section, highlighting popular Linux equivalents to Windows software.
