--- psiconv/trunk/README 1999/12/02 18:05:36 36 +++ psiconv/trunk/README 2004/02/04 15:28:56 200 @@ -2,13 +2,13 @@ ============ This package is meant to make the Psion 5 series of PDAs, as well as other -small computers running Epoc 32, more usable to non-Windows users. But even +small computers running EPOC 32, more usable to non-Windows users. But even they may profit from the data I collected. The package consists of several parts: * Documentation about Psion 5 data formats; * A library which can be linked against application that have to read - (and in the future, perhaps write) Psion 5 files; + and write Psion 5 files; * An example command-line program which reads Psion files and writes more commonly used formats. @@ -20,9 +20,10 @@ or is not able to release the data formats of the saved files of their internal applications. I am trying to reverse engineer these data formats and to document them for general use. At this moment, I understand their -Word, TextEd, Sketch, MBM and Record files. I want this information to -be available to everyone, in order to write better file conversion utilities -for popular (non-)Windows programs. +Word, Sheet, TextEd, Sketch, MBM, Clipart and Record files, as well as a +few other less important formats. I want this information to be available +to everyone, in order to write better file conversion utilities for popular +(non-)Windows programs. All documentation is written in Psion 5 Word. Fortunately, the utilities in this package can translate it to HTML and other formats. @@ -40,16 +41,18 @@ =========== libpsiconv is a library of routines that you can link against your own -application. It allows you to read Psion 5 files. Note that it comes -under the GNU General Public License; that means that you can only link -it to programs which are also covered by that license. You can contact -me if you need other license terms. - -The parser is quite good at the moment. Page layout codes are not yet -read, but almost everything that is described in the documents in the -format directory is supported by it. Of course, it can also not yet -cope with inserted objects (ie. documents in some other format) and -other as of yet undocumented things. +application. It allows you to read and write Psion 5 files. Note that +it comes under the GNU General Public License; that means that you can +only link it to programs which are also covered by that license. You can +contact me if you need other license terms. + +The following formats are supported at this moment: + Word (R+W) Word processor files + TextEd (R+W) OPL editor files + Sketch (R+W) Picture files + MBM (R+W) Alternate picture format; can contain several pictures + ClipArt (R+W) Internal picture format; can contain several pictures + Sheet (R) Spreadsheet files Documentation is scarce; please examine the source code or the example psiconv program. Some things may also be found in the doc subdirectory. @@ -64,7 +67,7 @@ Please enter `psiconv --help' if you want to know about its syntax. -The current HTML3 target is not very ideal. HTML is just not made to +The current HTML4 target is not very ideal. HTML is just not made to represent detailed layout considerations: it is a document description language. Still, the output is quite readable already. Of course, headers and footers are not displayed, because there is no notion of pages in @@ -72,24 +75,19 @@ solved using tables, but it is quite hard to do it correctly. Some other things are just approximated too. -The HTML4 target uses style sheets. You need a not-too-old browser for -this to display correctly. Generally, the output of this generator is -of higher quality than the normal HTML generator's. +The XHTML target uses cascading style sheets (CSS). You need a not-too-old +browser for this to display correctly. Generally, the output of this +generator is of higher quality than the normal HTML generator's. A plain TEXT target just grabs all text, without any futher conversions. -The RTF target is not finished yet; in fact, it is no usable at all -right now. - All ImageMagick graphic output formats are supported; depending on how you compiled ImageMagick, this is betwee 20 and 50 different formats. -Your favorite one should be somewhere... +Your favorite one should be somewhere in there... -I would very much like to add other targets, like (La)TeX, RTF (Rich Text -Format) and XML (for AbiWord). If other people want to work on this, please -let me know! Of course, you could also write your own conversion applications -just using my data format description. Native import/export filters for -some word processors would be very welcome! +In the past, my focus was on extending the number of output targets for +this program; at the moment, I belief more in import/export filters for +office applications like AbiWord, Gnumeric and the Gimp. Psiconv is licensed under the GPL. Please read the included file COPYING for exact licensing information. Please contact me if you need some other @@ -103,14 +101,14 @@ Starting with version 0.4, the conversion routines are linked into a (static or shared) library. Version 0.5 has autoconf and libtool support, and should run on many more platforms. Version 0.6 has support for -graphics. +graphics. Version 0.8 can generate files and add Sheet support. Version +0.9 uses Unicode inside, add the psiconv.conf file and has many more +enhancements. High on the TODO list are input routines for Record files. Sheet files will be next. I am running into some trouble understanding Data and Agenda files, but with a little luck, I'll figure it out after all. This is more long-term though. -On the output side, I hope RTF will soon be done. This will allow most -office tools to read the Psion files. INSTALLATION