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INTRODUCTION |
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============ |
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This package is meant to make the Psion 5 series of PDAs, as well as other |
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small computers running Epoc 32, more usable to non-Windows users. But even |
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they may profit from the data I collected. |
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The package consists of several parts: |
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* Documentation about Psion 5 data formats; |
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* A library which can be linked against application that have to read |
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(and in the future, perhaps write) Psion 5 files; |
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* An example command-line program which reads Psion files and writes |
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more commonly used formats. |
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DATA FORMATS |
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============ |
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As far as I know, and have gathered from the newsgroups, Psion does not want |
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or is not able to release the data formats of the saved files of their |
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internal applications. I am trying to reverse engineer these data formats |
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and to document them for general use. At this moment, I understand their |
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Word, TextEd, Sketch, MBM and Record files. I want this information to |
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be available to everyone, in order to write better file conversion utilities |
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for popular (non-)Windows programs. |
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All documentation is written in Psion 5 Word. Fortunately, the utilities |
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in this package can translate it to HTML and other formats. |
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Unlike all other files in this package, the *.psi files in the directory |
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formats/psion are completely public domain. I ask anybody who reproduces |
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them, or uses their information in other programs, kindly to attribute |
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them to me. |
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The documentation files are not installed on a `make install'; you can |
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find them in the subdirectories of the formats directory. |
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THE LIBRARY |
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=========== |
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libpsiconv is a library of routines that you can link against your own |
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application. It allows you to read Psion 5 files, and helps you output |
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more commonly used files. Note that it comes under the GNU General |
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Public License; that means that you can only link it to programs which |
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are also covered by that license. You can contact me if you need other |
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license terms. |
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Libpsiconv consists of two parts. The parser reads the Psion file into its |
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internal data structures. The generator reads these data structures and |
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generates an output file in some other format. Libpsiconv is written to make |
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it easy to add generators, without having to modify the parser side. |
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Actually, it is a lot easier to write a generator than to modify the parser! |
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The parser is quite good at the moment. Page layout codes are not yet |
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read, but almost everything that is described in the documents in the |
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format directory is supported by it. Of course, it can also not yet |
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cope with inserted objects (ie. documents in some other format) and |
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other as of yet undocumented things. |
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The current HTML target is not very ideal. HTML is just not made to |
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represent detailed layout considerations: it is a document description |
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language. Still, the output is quite readable already. Of course, headers |
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and footers are not displayed, because there is no notion of pages in |
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HTML. Tabs are also difficult; they are not supported yet. This can be |
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solved using tables, but it is quite hard to do it correctly. Some other |
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things are just approximated too. |
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The HTML4 target uses style sheets. You need a not-too-old browser for |
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this to display correctly. Generally, the output of this generator is |
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of higher quality than the normal HTML generator's. |
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A plain TEXT target just grabs all text, without any futher conversions. |
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I would very much like to add other targets, like (La)TeX, RTF (Rich Text |
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Format) and XML (for AbiWord). If other people want to work on this, please |
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let me know! Of course, you could also write your own conversion applications |
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just using my data format description. Native import/export filters for |
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some word processors would be very welcome! |
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Documentation is scarce; please examine the source code or the example |
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psiconv program. Some things may also be found in the doc subdirectory. |
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THE PROGRAM |
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=========== |
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Psiconv is a command-line converter that reads Psiconv files and outputs |
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more commonly used formats. It is linked against libpsiconv, and can |
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handle anything that it can. |
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Please enter `psiconv --help' if you want to know about its syntax. |
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Psiconv is licensed under the GPL. Please read the included file COPYING |
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for exact licensing information. Please contact me if you need some other |
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licensing terms. |
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NEWS AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS |
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============================ |
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Starting with version 0.2, psiconv should keep all namespaces unpoluted. |
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Starting with version 0.4, the conversion routines are linked into a |
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(static or shared) library. Version 0.5 has autoconf and libtool support, |
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and should run on many more platforms. |
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High on the TODO list are input routines for Sketch, MBM and Record files. |
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Sheet files will be next. I am running into some trouble understanding |
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Data and Agenda files, but with a little luck, I'll figure it out after |
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all. This is more long-term though. |
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On the output side, I hope RTF will soon be done. This will allow most |
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office tools to read the Psion files. |
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INSTALLATION |
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============ |
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Please read the file INSTALL for installation instructions. |
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