Is Rockbox compatible with Sandisk's Sansa Clip Sport?

[hedron]

I would think so because I'm just guessing that it's essentially the same hardware as the other Clips.  But I just wanted to ask for more certainty.

Also, is there a lock switch in Rockbox?  Because the Sport doesn't have a lock switch builtin.

[saratoga]

No Rockbox only works with the devices listed on the front page and a few devices in various stages of early development. I would not expect a port to the sport anytime soon as the hardware is unusual.

[AlexP]

I'm just guessing that it's essentially the same hardware as the other Clips. 

It isn't

[August]

That's a shame. I do appreciate what the coders here have to go through to deliver a finished product. My Sansa Fuze+ kind of died recently and I need to buy either the same model or a new one. I see that it's getting harder to buy a Fuze+ which is a shame IMO but I can see Sansa will discontinue all models and push forward with the Clip Sport. I was going to buy it but then my decision is down to RockBox compatibility. I sincerely hope that RockBox staff reconsider as I believe Clip Sport will no doubt be the flagship model for Sansa.

[toehser]

You say they'll discontinue other models?  Is that just speculation?

I'm doubting they'll discontinue the Zip and only have the sport.

Can anyone confirm either way?

[[Saint]]

It seems as though you're perhaps a little confused.

There's nothing for Rockbox.org to "reconsider". Its not like this is a case of there being this fantastic development target just sitting there being ignored and simply no one can be bothered doing the work.
The thing is, from what is known of the target device, a port to this device would fall somewhere in between "multiple hundreds of man hours" to "impossible", with the latter of the two being the more likely candidate.

At the very least, assuming there's some more resources in the package hidden away from us that would make a port possible, it would be a port to a brand new architecture and that is most certainly not a trivial undertaking and would account for a large portion of those many hundreds of man hours. Again assuming a port to this device was somehow possible, I posit that quite a few concessions would need to be made and it would be rather crippled even when compared to our other ports with very limited resources.

The amount of new ports introduced in the past couple of years perhaps gives a false sense of the sheer amount of work involved, but this was able to happen mostly due to the fact that developers were deliberately picking devices with incredibly similar hardware to existing ports. Whereas the Clip Sport is vastly unlike any other target to date.

It also pays to note that this device is quite far removed from a "flagship". It is, in many ways, a downgrade from the previous Clip variants. It would be really nice to know what the Hell SanDisk was thinking and what was going on behind the scenes that made them switch things up so drastically.


[Saint]

[August]

You say they'll discontinue other models?  Is that just speculation?

I'm doubting they'll discontinue the Zip and only have the sport.

Can anyone confirm either way?

Sorry for the late reply, I was merely specualting. When a corporate entity releases a new model they will often discontinue the old one to make you buy the new one. I ended up buying a refurbished sansa clip zip and it's worked out better than I expected. No need for sansa sport.

It seems as though you're perhaps a little confused.

There's nothing for Rockbox.org to "reconsider". Its not like this is a case of there being this fantastic development target just sitting there being ignored and simply no one can be bothered doing the work.
The thing is, from what is known of the target device, a port to this device would fall somewhere in between "multiple hundreds of man hours" to "impossible", with the latter of the two being the more likely candidate.

At the very least, assuming there's some more resources in the package hidden away from us that would make a port possible, it would be a port to a brand new architecture and that is most certainly not a trivial undertaking and would account for a large portion of those many hundreds of man hours. Again assuming a port to this device was somehow possible, I posit that quite a few concessions would need to be made and it would be rather crippled even when compared to our other ports with very limited resources.

The amount of new ports introduced in the past couple of years perhaps gives a false sense of the sheer amount of work involved, but this was able to happen mostly due to the fact that developers were deliberately picking devices with incredibly similar hardware to existing ports. Whereas the Clip Sport is vastly unlike any other target to date.

It also pays to note that this device is quite far removed from a "flagship". It is, in many ways, a downgrade from the previous Clip variants. It would be really nice to know what the Hell SanDisk was thinking and what was going on behind the scenes that made them switch things up so drastically.


[Saint]

Hi, again sorry for the late reply. Thank you for your detailed answer. I have a better understanding of how development works. Apologese for any offense caused. Rockbox, atleast for me is taken for granted. I just assumed that jumping on new models would be make sense but I can see this wasn't a flagship model after all and everyone had already assesed if it would be worth it or not in the long run.