| 1 |
INTRODUCTION |
| 2 |
============ |
| 3 |
|
| 4 |
This package is meant to make the Psion 5 series of PDAs, as well as other |
| 5 |
small computers running Epoc 32, more usable to non-Windows users. But even |
| 6 |
they may profit from the data I collected. |
| 7 |
|
| 8 |
The package consists of several parts: |
| 9 |
* Documentation about Psion 5 data formats; |
| 10 |
* A library which can be linked against application that have to read |
| 11 |
(and in the future, perhaps write) Psion 5 files; |
| 12 |
* An example command-line program which reads Psion files and writes |
| 13 |
more commonly used formats. |
| 14 |
|
| 15 |
|
| 16 |
DATA FORMATS |
| 17 |
============ |
| 18 |
|
| 19 |
As far as I know, and have gathered from the newsgroups, Psion does not want |
| 20 |
or is not able to release the data formats of the saved files of their |
| 21 |
internal applications. I am trying to reverse engineer these data formats |
| 22 |
and to document them for general use. At this moment, I understand their |
| 23 |
Word, TextEd, Sketch, MBM and Record files. I want this information to |
| 24 |
be available to everyone, in order to write better file conversion utilities |
| 25 |
for popular (non-)Windows programs. |
| 26 |
|
| 27 |
All documentation is written in Psion 5 Word. Fortunately, the utilities |
| 28 |
in this package can translate it to HTML and other formats. |
| 29 |
|
| 30 |
Unlike all other files in this package, the *.psi files in the directory |
| 31 |
formats/psion are completely public domain. I ask anybody who reproduces |
| 32 |
them, or uses their information in other programs, kindly to attribute |
| 33 |
them to me. |
| 34 |
|
| 35 |
The documentation files are not installed on a `make install'; you can |
| 36 |
find them in the subdirectories of the formats directory. |
| 37 |
|
| 38 |
|
| 39 |
THE LIBRARY |
| 40 |
=========== |
| 41 |
|
| 42 |
libpsiconv is a library of routines that you can link against your own |
| 43 |
application. It allows you to read Psion 5 files. Note that it comes |
| 44 |
under the GNU General Public License; that means that you can only link |
| 45 |
it to programs which are also covered by that license. You can contact |
| 46 |
me if you need other license terms. |
| 47 |
|
| 48 |
The parser is quite good at the moment. Page layout codes are not yet |
| 49 |
read, but almost everything that is described in the documents in the |
| 50 |
format directory is supported by it. Of course, it can also not yet |
| 51 |
cope with inserted objects (ie. documents in some other format) and |
| 52 |
other as of yet undocumented things. |
| 53 |
|
| 54 |
Documentation is scarce; please examine the source code or the example |
| 55 |
psiconv program. Some things may also be found in the doc subdirectory. |
| 56 |
|
| 57 |
|
| 58 |
THE PROGRAM |
| 59 |
=========== |
| 60 |
|
| 61 |
Psiconv is a command-line converter that reads Psiconv files and outputs |
| 62 |
more commonly used formats. It is linked against libpsiconv, and can |
| 63 |
handle anything that it can. |
| 64 |
|
| 65 |
Please enter `psiconv --help' if you want to know about its syntax. |
| 66 |
|
| 67 |
The current HTML3 target is not very ideal. HTML is just not made to |
| 68 |
represent detailed layout considerations: it is a document description |
| 69 |
language. Still, the output is quite readable already. Of course, headers |
| 70 |
and footers are not displayed, because there is no notion of pages in |
| 71 |
HTML. Tabs are also difficult; they are not supported yet. This can be |
| 72 |
solved using tables, but it is quite hard to do it correctly. Some other |
| 73 |
things are just approximated too. |
| 74 |
|
| 75 |
The HTML4 target uses style sheets. You need a not-too-old browser for |
| 76 |
this to display correctly. Generally, the output of this generator is |
| 77 |
of higher quality than the normal HTML generator's. |
| 78 |
|
| 79 |
A plain TEXT target just grabs all text, without any futher conversions. |
| 80 |
|
| 81 |
The RTF target is not finished yet; in fact, it is no usable at all |
| 82 |
right now. |
| 83 |
|
| 84 |
All ImageMagick graphic output formats are supported; depending on how |
| 85 |
you compiled ImageMagick, this is betwee 20 and 50 different formats. |
| 86 |
Your favorite one should be somewhere... |
| 87 |
|
| 88 |
I would very much like to add other targets, like (La)TeX, RTF (Rich Text |
| 89 |
Format) and XML (for AbiWord). If other people want to work on this, please |
| 90 |
let me know! Of course, you could also write your own conversion applications |
| 91 |
just using my data format description. Native import/export filters for |
| 92 |
some word processors would be very welcome! |
| 93 |
|
| 94 |
Psiconv is licensed under the GPL. Please read the included file COPYING |
| 95 |
for exact licensing information. Please contact me if you need some other |
| 96 |
licensing terms. |
| 97 |
|
| 98 |
|
| 99 |
NEWS AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS |
| 100 |
============================ |
| 101 |
|
| 102 |
Starting with version 0.2, psiconv should keep all namespaces unpoluted. |
| 103 |
Starting with version 0.4, the conversion routines are linked into a |
| 104 |
(static or shared) library. Version 0.5 has autoconf and libtool support, |
| 105 |
and should run on many more platforms. Version 0.6 has support for |
| 106 |
graphics. |
| 107 |
|
| 108 |
High on the TODO list are input routines for Record files. |
| 109 |
Sheet files will be next. I am running into some trouble understanding |
| 110 |
Data and Agenda files, but with a little luck, I'll figure it out after |
| 111 |
all. This is more long-term though. |
| 112 |
On the output side, I hope RTF will soon be done. This will allow most |
| 113 |
office tools to read the Psion files. |
| 114 |
|
| 115 |
|
| 116 |
INSTALLATION |
| 117 |
============ |
| 118 |
|
| 119 |
Please read the file INSTALL for installation instructions. |
Parent Directory
| 
Revision Log