Tips for Postings to The Digest and how to unsubscribe
http://www.psioneering.co.uk/digests/Tips.txt
The Digest Mon, 22 Nov 2004 Volume 02 : Number 643
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Sent to: 761 subscribers
In today's The Digest 20 messages
=============================
- Re: OPL from EPOC to Symbian
- Migrating from Epoc, Tomtom Maps, Pocket Dvd Studio - p800, Fujitsu-Siemens LOOX
- Re: OPL from EPOC to Symbian
Date: 19 Nov 2004 06:18:31 +0700
From: Peter Rand <address truncated>
Subject: Latest Netbook ROM
Hi Steve,
> Hi all,
> I'm after the URL for the latest netBook ROM image and I'm blowed if I
can find it on the Psion Teklogix site! Anyone got a URL or have it up
their own server somewhere?
Try this:
www.psionteklogix.com/teknet/pdk/netbook-pdk/downloads.htm
Regards,
Peter Rand
Vienna
Date: 19 Nov 2004 07:47:35 +0700
From: U Hornstein <address truncated>
Subject: Re: No self-recharging 5mx
Reference is made to the mail in the The Digest V1 # 641 (4) : Christopher Holly <cjholl<address truncated>wrote on 17 Nov 2004 18:43:26 (> ):
> Ulrich, would it matter that the 5mx is in the docking
> station and current
> is coming through the Honda connector?
I did not measure this, but I believe strongly that it does not matter if
the power from outside comes via the Honda or via the DC connector.
Or is what you
> are saying simply
> that it discharges more slowly with the AC power
> connected and the 5mx is
> off than with the AC power disconnected and the 5mx off.
Yes, true. With AC power it discharges the batteries only with 59 uA and without with 1.1 mA (this current depending on the voltage of the batteries).
> I will buy that it discharges more slowly because that's
> all I've noticed.
> I have never measured to see if the batteries have a
> greater charge.
Think of the following experiment with NiMH, Psion switched off: If you measure the battery voltage without AC power = V1.
Apply AC power, wait some time, the measure the battery voltage with AC
power = V2.
You will find that V2 > V1 (only small difference). You may conclude that
the AC power must have charged the NiMH. But it did not. 59 uA keep flowing out of the batteries. But the voltage rises somewhat because the batt.
recover from the 1 mA current the had to give before. This effect increases
of course, if you had measured V1 with the Psion switched on.
I do know they last far longer if I
> leave the unit in the docking station when
> not in use, than if it just sits in the case.
Yes, true. That was one purpose of my writing.
They will last roughly around 20 times as long. However, in this low
current regions it may not be totally correct to calculate in a linear
manner, but I do not know better.
-- With greetings from Germany
Ulrich Hornstein
For spam protection: Please NEVER type my mail address into a www page ('send to a friend' or similar)!
Sent by MC218 (EPOC palmtop)
Date: 19 Nov 2004 13:39:38 +0700
From: Itamar Engelsman <address truncated>
Subject: Handy Desk
This is a desktop program that will allow you to program a tremendous
number of shortcuts to almost any program and any screen on your P910. It shows a screen with the shortcuts in icons. You can program it to your own design and requirements and has got different folders to be used. You can
of course add your own folders as well.
When adding a shortcut you first have to choose where it is to, i.e. an application, a contact, a SMS, a MMs, etc. Applications is clear, with
contacts you can choose which of the entered numbers you want the shortcut
to (home, work, mobile), with SMS you can choose to which number to send
the SMS, etc. These options are basically also present in the Handy Day program. So where is the difference ?
In Handy Day you can choose only the Control Panel and from there you have
to continue "by hand". With Handy Desktop you can choose exactly to which
part of the Control Panel you want the shortcut. For example, I created a shortcut to Flight Mode which takes me straight to the choice to activate
it, a shortcut to Bluetooth allows you straight to switch it on or off, the same with Infra red. You can also create a shortcut straight to the inbox
of an email or SMS account. The folder option allows you for example to
group all the contacts together, all the communication settings, etc., or alternatively to separate home and work.
You can also arrange the icons in different ways, lock them in place, sett different wallpapers, choose different icons from the default ones and
several more options.
Would I have bought it ? Probably not as the advantage above the Handy Day program is not _that_ significant, but as it came free with Handy Day I
surely got used very quickly to using it a lot.
Best regards,
Itamar Engelsman
London, UK
Date: 19 Nov 2004 13:39:39 +0700
From: Itamar Engelsman <address truncated>
Subject: P910 - user tip
I got very annoyed with the backlight constantly switching off while using
it but not pressing the keys or screen for a little while.
I now set both "light (handheld)" and "Light (car)" settings to ON and the power save to come on after 3 minutes. The light nos stays on at reduced brightness while in the cradle or connected in the car, and otherwise
switches to the power save clock after the 3 minutes.
My problem was solved.
By the way, there are loads of wallpapers around, but I use the "Orange"
one that came with the P910. It gives a nice touch to the screen, but basically keeps it whitish and bright, making it easy to read the information.
Best regards,
Itamar Engelsman
London, UK
Date: 20 Nov 2004 14:04:41 +0700
From: Kevin Thorne <address truncated>
Subject: nConvert problem
I have a registered copy of nConvert on my S7 which I have used for a long time now without trouble. Just recently I tried doing an EPOC Word to .RTF conversion and I now only get a dialog box saying "not found" and the conversion doesn't go ahead. Can anyone tell me what the problem might be? This happpens now on any conversion I try!
Regards
Kevin Thorne
Date: 20 Nov 2004 15:59:09 +0700
From: Kevin Thorne <address truncated>
Subject: Nokia 9500 on Expansys
Charlie J Bramley wrote:
<Subject: Re: News from eXpansys..
So who is going to take the plunge and be the first to obtain a Nokia 9500 ?.
I would be interested in any ex-5mx/EPOC users opinion of this "PDA" (OK,
OK - SmartPhone)>
Well, I am sorely tempted to get one right now - just checked Expansys and yes, there are 5 in stock! I can give you my experiences of the 9210 if
you want as I had one of these for 18 months. I've always said that it was
a great machine - it had great potential but was severely crippled by a uselessly small amount of RAM (just try multitasking with less than 4Mb to
use!) and it lacked the modern connectivity options that all the other PDAs seem to have. No such problems with the 9500 though and I genuinely think
that this time I have a real alternative to my dearly missed 5mx. Now
where did I put my credit card? :-) One thing I found with the 9210 is the extreme convenience of having your phone and PDA in one box - even better
than a 5mx plus mobile! Sure, that setup isn't for everyone but it sure worked for me. The funny thing was, I didn't think I would like that setup when I first got it :-) So hopefully, I'll be able to give you my user
review soon.
Regards
Kevin Thorne
Date: 20 Nov 2004 16:59:36 +0700
From: David Steer \(Plus\) <address truncated>
Subject: Re: OPL from EPOC to Symbian
Itamar,
The process is not so straight forward. First Epoc uses ASCII encoding in files where as Symbian devices use UU (??) Encoding to allow for Chinese charater sets etc. This means that you would first need to export the OPL
file on the EPOC device as a Text file. Then copy the text file to the Symbian device (or emulator on a PC). If you have OPL installed then you
would be able to import that text file into a program file.
There are a few differences in the commands but not much, the main
differences are in the OPXs (Sysram1 does not exist, it is replaced bu AppFrame and MediaServer OPXs). Also, later versions of Symbian don't have
the toolbar. And the screen sizes are different so you may need to change
the code accordingly and any graphics files. MBM files are fully supported.
The easies way is to track down the differences is to try and translate the code and wait for the errors to be reported.
Regards
David
Date: 20 Nov 2004 16:59:38 +0700
From: David Steer \(Plus\) <address truncated>
Subject: Re: TomTom
To Keith Giles and Ulrich Hornstein,
There is a file on the CD that identifies all the towns (over 27,700) of
them and then details which of the sis files (108) of them the town is
in. IT seems that not all the towns are listed. Anyway, I have extracted this file into an Excel spreadsheet (Using filters and Find) which allows someone to find the appropriate file to load. Especiall if you know other towns near the one you want (found on a paper map or on
www.multimap.co.uk). I used this file to extract all the map sis files so
I could transfer the sis files to my Psion to install there!
MartinG, if you are reading this, would this spreadsheet be a usefull file
for your site?
I can also send the file to who ever might want to try it - it is 449Kb
zipped and 1.8Mb unzipped.
Hope this helps a bit.
Regards
David
Date: 20 Nov 2004 17:42:55 +0700
From: Martin Maxwell <address truncated>
Subject: RE OPL from EPOC to Symbian
Answer to: Itamar Engelsman
Subject: RE: OPL from EPOC to Symbian
>If you have a program written in OPL for an EPOC machine, is it possible
to >use such a program on a Symbian if you translate it from .opl to .opo
on >the Symbian machine or not ?
In the vast majority of cases, the answer is NO. Some changes will need to
be done.
However, those changes are quite easy, though they depend on the target device. It is easier on a Series 80 (e.g. Nokia 9210) than on a UIQ or
Series 60 device. Even more importantly, OPL is still not at full release
for the latter two, though I expect from what I hear that it's a question
of a few months.
> If not, what is needed to convert one OPL file
>to the other OPL file to make it work ?
There is no simple answer to this question. First and foremost, it depends
on which the Symbian
target device, and which user interface (e.g. Series 60, Series 80 or UIQ)
it is using. Secondly it depends on the functions the application is using. Example of areas subject for change are:
- text handling using PEEK/POKE or Buffer since we now have Unicode instead
of Ascii.
- screen sizes and hence graphics and Dialogs etc to be adjusted
- command buttons replacing Toolbar
- some of the OPXs have been reorganised, for instance SystInfo and SysRAM1 are now merged in to System.opx
- changes in the Menu handling
- use of checkboxes since Series 80 and Series 60 do not have touchscreen
If it is a very straightforward Input-Output type application, which is not using any of the aforementioned functions, it *might* work if you just save your source code to text, convert it to Unicode and load it into the OPL
Editor on a Nokia 9210 and then compile and run it.
kind regards
Martin Maxwell
Phuket - Thailand
Date: 20 Nov 2004 17:44:02 +0700
From: Stephen Stone <address truncated>
Subject: Palm File Manager
I'm not certain that I've understood the concern of digesters who have evaluated Palm and found the file management lacking. My experience with a borrowed Palm III was frustrating in this respect. My bookmarks contained
a reference to this GPL program: http://www.mulliner.org/palm/gentleman.phpWould this program be of help?
/Stephen Stone
Date: 20 Nov 2004 21:09:11 +0700
From: Roberto Colistete Jr. <address truncated>
Subject: OPL from EPOC to Symbian
> If you have a program written in OPL for an EPOC machine, is it >
possible to use such a program on a Symbian if you translate it from > .opl
to .opo on the Symbian machine or not ? If not, what is needed to > convert one OPL file to the other OPL file to make it work ?
>
> Best regards,
> Itamar Engelsman
Hi,
Yes, it is not only possible, but recommended indeed (by the OPL guys :-) ). There are some differences between the EPOC R3-5 and Symbian OS 6-7 versions of OPL. I suggest looking at :
http://www.allaboutopl.com/wiki/OPLWikiHome
I am currently porting Graph32 to Series 80 (and UIQ afterwards) with
the help of OPL Wizard (www.robertocolistete.net/OPLWizard). OPL Wizard
does the dirty job of pointing possible modifications to the source code.
Regards from Brazil,
Roberto Colistete Jr.
Date: 21 Nov 2004 01:14:59 +0700
From: Itamar Engelsman <address truncated>
Subject: P910 as modem,
Hi Rolf,
Thanks for your answer. I did try to put the "5" in the +CGDCONT string but
it did not work while the current setting does. I don't really know why as this is all slightly "over my head" but am happy it does work. I made a two-day business trip to France, Belgium and Holland this week and the
phone performed perfect as a modem and in the evenings I worked in the
hotel room like it was my office in London <G>.
Best regards,
Itamar
Date: 21 Nov 2004 01:15:00 +0700
From: Itamar Engelsman <address truncated>
Subject: Migrating from Epoc, Tomtom Maps, Pocket Dvd Studio - p800, Fujitsu-Siemens LOOX
Answer to: g y reyes
Re.: Migrating from Epoc - Noting your desire to jump from the Palm to the PocketPC platform. Did you consider the Symbian machines as well ? Both
the currently discussed P910 as well as the upcoming Nokia 9500 & 9300 are very capable machines that keep you much closer to the original EPOC
machines than any of the other platforms.
Answer to: Keith Giles
Re.: Tomtom Maps - WOW ! 121 city maps is a lot of memory. If you have Routeplanner as well you can also open Routeplanner on the particular
country you are interested in and set the program to "show maps". This way
you can reduce the size of the country map and see all the city maps
installed on your Psion. Clicking on any of the maps will give you a window asking if you want to go to that city map and the name of the map.
Answer to: Mike Dyer
Re.: Pocket Dvd Studio - p800 - Looking at their website I think you are
not 100% correct. It reads "SmartMovie is a video player for your mobile device, with counterpart PC converter utility. It means you do have to do
some converting. A bit further down it says "Convert any video file on your
PC into a phone-friendly video file. In this context also have a
look at www.makayama.com. They developed a program that will run movies on your P800/P900 phone and will in the process of converting also reduce the
size of the file considerably so that a 30 minutes TV-show will fit onto a
32 Mb memory stick. DVD's are not supported, but you can use DVD-to-mobile
to first convert the DVD. DVD-to-mobile cost only USD 25.- and a fill
length feature film will fit on a 128 Mb card so if you buy a 1 Gb card you can put at least 7 films on it (I have no connection with any of these Companies).
Answer to: Alan Morris
Re.: Fujitsu-Siemens LOOX-720 - Thanks for the info. I had a quick look but
it has an internal memory of 64 Mb only which is not nearly enough when I
take functions and take 600 to 700 shots.
Best regards,
Itamar Engelsman
London, UK
Date: 21 Nov 2004 07:50:45 +0700
From: Ian Chapple <address truncated>
Subject: no subject
Itamar,
I forwarded your OPL question...
>>If you have a program written in OPL for an EPOC machine, is it possible
to use such a program on a Symbian if you translate it from .opl to .opo on the Symbian machine or not ? If not, what is needed to convert one OPL file
to the other OPL file to make it work?<<
on to the other members of FreEPOC, as I know nothing about OPL on Symbian machines, and had the following answer from Ewan:
>>>ER5 is ASCII, ER6+ is Unicode, so you;ll need the source file and
recompile it for the new device. www.allaboutopl.com/wiki should have
details on seeting up the PC enviroment, or grab the UIQ or 92xx PROGRAM
app from opl-dev.sourceforge.net
You need to recompile, if you use OPX's you'll need to take care they're
still the same.
It's similar to the S3 -> S5 route OPL programmers had to take.<<<
It's obviously a very pertinent question, a many EPOC converts are either going to want to be able to use their own OPL programs and/or continue
using software which they had previously used under EPOC.
Cheers, Ian.
Date: 21 Nov 2004 09:42:00 +0700
From: Steve Litchfield <address truncated>
Subject: OPL/Symbian
Itamar,
Yes, in theory, a basic OPL program for EPOC will translate without
problems on a 9210i or similar. In practice, there are touch-screen/display-size/Jog-Dial/OPX issues which complicate things slightly.
But it's certainly not a huge undertaking to port a Psion OPL program over
to a Symbian platform. E.g. my Fairway, Mapper, Atomic, Pitstop, etc. And
all the core 'content' code that's unique to your program can be used more
or less as-is. ____________________________________________________________________
Steve Litchfield, 3-Lib, http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk/
Software and features for Psion/Symbian handhelds and smartphones
Also PocketInfo, useful files - http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk/pocketinfo Journalism: sub-editor and/or senior contributor to:
Palmtop User - http://www.palmtop.co.uk/
PDA Essentials - http://www.paragon.co.uk/mags/pdaessentials.html
PC Basics - http://www.paragon.co.uk/mags/pcbasics.html
Reviews editor, AllAboutSymbian - http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/
Date: 21 Nov 2004 11:27:29 +0700
From: Chris S Handley
Subject: Re: OPL from EPOC to Symbian
Itamar Engelsman wrote:
> If you have a program written in OPL for an EPOC machine, is
> it possible to use such a program on a Symbian if you
> translate it from .opl to .opo on the Symbian machine or not?
I don't have any direct experience of doing this, but I have been
researching it, and so have a fairly good idea of what is involved in
porting to a Nokia Communicator.
Even assuming that you convert your OPL files from ASCII to Unicode (which
can be done with the MS-DOS program OplConv), the short answer is that it probably WON'T work unless it is a simple program. The OPL Wiki contains
some good information on porting our (ER5) programs to working on Symbian,
but here is the gist:
OPL's syntax (i.e. the language itself) is essentially unchanged, except
that it was extended in a few areas, and a few bugs were removed. Also, dCHECKBOX was removed, and should be emulated using dCHOICE.
But all of Symbian's OPXs (e.g. System, SysRam1, Date, etc) were
reorganised and usually their procedures were renamed as well. This means that there is a one-off cost of trying to translate your program, and
renaming the offending "unknown" constant or procedure, as well as possibly specifying a different OPX to INCLUDE. A few procedures were removed completely, but they were generally obscure things, and they can be done a better way now (typically using the HAL or Media Server).
Similarly, Symbian's Const.oph file had some constants renamed, and a few OPL16 (SIBO) compatibility constants were finally removed. If your program does not use constants from Const.oph, but instead uses plain numbers (say
of ASCII characters), then you may find that your program simply doesn't
work, or at least behaves unexpectedly.
Many of the above issues are spotted by a Symbian program someone wrote,
and I think it may also offer to convert ASCII OPL files to Unicode ones.
Any 3rd party OPXs (e.g. Neuon's nMPD & nListBox) most likely do not exist
for Symbian OPL, and therefore you must remove any code that relies on them.
There is no Toolbar, as it has been replaced by the Command Button Array (CBA). The CBA has different limitations to the Toolbar, so converting
from one to the other may not be trivial.
Of course, Symbian devices have different screen sizes, so a program may
need to be modified to look right on those screen sizes. The Nokia Communicators aren't too bad, as their screen size is 640x200, which is
similar to the Psion 5's 640x240.
BTW, thankfully MBM files are compatible, so they don't need converting.
Porting to UIQ or Series 60 is somewhat harder, because their versions of
OPL are more limited (e.g. missing some GUI elements and some OPXs), and because their screen sizes are completely different. I'd suggest that it
is best to port a Nokia Communicator first, and then later try to port it
to the more limited OPL of a UIQ or S60 device.
I hope that helps!
Regards,
Chris Handley
Date: 21 Nov 2004 14:01:59 +0700
From: John Morris <address truncated>
Subject: Phoneman Pro
I used PhonemanPro for a short while until I password-protected one of the phone files, and then lost the password. I have tried uninstalling & reinstalling the program, but it still keeps wanting the bl**dy password.
Any clues anyone as to how I can rid my Mako of that password?
Thanks
John Morris, Cambs UK
Date: 21 Nov 2004 18:17:57 +0700
From: Peter Rand
Subject: Re: Migrating from Epoc (and back again!)
Hi Gary and Steve,
After years of happily using my RevoPlus, I somehow felt compelled to
switch platforms, and got both a Palm Tungsten
and the clamshell Zaurus. I also had a look at PocketPC, and tested the SonyEricsson P800 and the Nokia Communicator 9210i.
After trying for over a year to get things up and running to my liking on these various machines, and after buying lots of new software, I realized
that for my needs, nothing comes even close to a Psion, regardless of
whether or not development continues. I finally transferred all of my data
and files
back to the RevoPlus, and am as happy as a clam.
Both the "outdated" Psion hardware and Psion software, while lacking some
of the bells and whistles of newer machines, remain state-of-the-art with regard to reliability and usability. In this sense, a Psion handheld still remains a joy to use.
If my Psion hardware fails, I will not hesitate to replace it with another Psion, since no other platform, in my experience, offers the same balance
of elegance, power and flexibility.
Poorer but wiser, I am now firmly back in the Psion camp. In fact, I'm now having my Series 7 upgraded with the NetBook personality module to become a WiFi-capable 7Book (knock on wood). And I continue to find amazing new
Psion software on almost a weekly basis, thanks to a dedicated and talented pool of EPOC programmers.
I was extremely disappointed when Psion ceased its development of ER 5 machines, but I have to confess that I'm having more
fun than ever with these fantastic machines.
And thanks again to all of you who continue to program for ER5 - all your
work is really appreciated!
Peter
> From: Steve Hodgson <stev<address truncated>>
Subject: Reflections on moving to Palm
>After 10+ years of Psion use and a couple of years of >prevarication
I've finally jumped ship! I must admit that I feel that I have been partly pushed there by Psion and would _never_ have switched if Psion had
continued to develop and support their handhelds.
Steve,
I had to do the same when my trusty and well-appreciated S5 then Revo Plus failed on me after years of service.
I have been using a Palm OS device for about a year but am now considering going to a Pocket PC device. I miss the ability to manipulate files that
we could do so easily on the Symbian/Epoc OS and the connection on SMS and
on email. The Palm is terrible in this area and I understand the Windows Mobile 2003 is better at this.
Gary
Date: 21 Nov 2004 23:07:41 +0700
From: Alan Morris <address truncated>
Subject: Re: Migrating from Epoc
g y reyes <gyreye<address truncated>wrote:-
> I had to do the same when my trusty and well-appreciated S5
> then Revo Plus failed on me after years of service.
As I wrote on the same Digest, I've just bought a PPC 2003 r2, but not as a Psion replacement.
> I have been using a Palm OS device for about a year but am
> now considering going to a Pocket PC device. I miss the
> ability to manipulate files that we could do so easily on the
> Symbian/Epoc OS and the connection on SMS and on email. The
> Palm is terrible in this area and I understand the Windows
> Mobile 2003 is better at this.
I'm very new to PPC Gary, but with only a few hours use, I can't find how
to copy or move a file.
There are no drive letters, just 'CF card' in place of a nice E:. There is built-in RAM (C: to us) and built-in flash ROM, known as '2577' (~D:), a
folder that must not be deleted.
So at the moment I would suggest that if it's terrible on a Palm then is
even worse on a PPC. But as the help is so limited and I'm new to PPC or 'Windows Mobile' as it's now called, it maybe that it's something to fall
over at some time - after all it is still Windows.
However for it's intended use, it is very good at displaying photographs
with an excellent zoom to see maximum detail in the file. Copying my OS
maps from laptop is also excellent, but I've yet to find how to connect a GPS.
Also there are no file extensions shown.
PS. I've just found by accident, that a long tap is the same as a right
mouse click for a context menu. This includes the copy features. So this maybe better than Palm Gary.
-- Alan R Morris, G4ENS.
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK.
Using a Psion netBook & Nokia 6210e.
Date: 21 Nov 2004 23:07:53 +0700
From: Alan Morris <address truncated>
Subject: Re: Tomtom Maps
Keith Giles <ohsi<address truncated>wrote:-
> Ulrich also wrote:
>
>> It was very difficult if not impossible to indentify all
>> files on the PC that are needed to cover the entire area.
>> Does anybodyknow a way how to solve this problem?
>
> This may not help you, but this is what Mister Low-Tech did.
> After I had installed some CityMaps, I zoomed out as far as
> possible. I could then see a small map with little detail of
> the current selected map, plus gray rectangles of the other
> maps installed
If my memory is correct RealMaps maybe the solution. Do as Keith says to
see the area covered by a map, but then get the co-ordinate of the each side.
You will than have two eastings and two northings. Use the template
overlay data file supplied with RealMaps. Enter the coordinates and a map name.
I started to do this with OS 1:50,000 paper maps. One can then display a rectangle for each map. If you have a GPS connected, use RealMaps to find
the CityMap required, then load it into Palmtop.
I lot of time will be required to do this, which is why I never finished my
OS map project.
-- Alan R Morris, G4ENS.
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK.
Using a Psion netBook & Nokia 6210e.