Epocdigest V1 # 578

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Epoc Digest Thu, 19 Aug 2004 Volume 01 : Number 578

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Sent to: 742 subscribers

In today's Epoc Digest 05 messages:

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- Widened Epocdigest

- Introduction to Symbian

- Re: URLs, comparing contacts

- Re: Series5, DOS better than Windows

- Missing issues,

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Date: 18 Aug 2004 10:21:03 +0100

From: Itamar Engelsman

Subject: Widened Epocdigest

Dear Subscribers,

Back in May 2002 the old ups5-digest suddenly disappeared and left a vacuum for finding information and help about the using of EPOC machines. Some Epoc / Psion enthousiasts got together and created the current "Epoc Digest" that has now run over 570 issues and has a steady following of around 750 subscribers worldwide. Since May 2002 a lot has happened and changed in the world of EPOC users. The Psion machines and EPOC as an operating system have been discontinued. While we are continueing to use our EPOC machines the need for further information and help is slowly disappearing and no new developments are to be expected anymore. As our machines start to get older and show wear and tare, some already being at the end of their lifecylce, we will all sooner or later have to make a choice about a replacement for our EPOC machines. Some of us will move away towards the Palm or WindowsCE machines, others will try out the machines running the Symbian OS which is based on the EPOC OS and has a lot of features we are used to, as well as some limited capabillity for transfering of data. While the EPOC world has stood still, the Symbian world has developed considerably with new machines / phones being introduced constantly. The SE P800/900/910 starts to be a possible replacement and many have high hopes for the Nokia 9500 which was planned for Q4 in 2004, but now Nokia say another 6 months. Where does this leave us, Epoc digest subscribers ?

The team of operators decided that the time has come to widen the scope of the digest and to include the Symbian OS platform in the digest. There are enough similarities and common ground to keep it interesting for both the EPOC and the Symbian users, and it is to be expected that with the further disappearing of older EPOC machines the contents will slowly move more towards the Symbian platform. It will probably mean that within the near future the name of the digest will change to "EpocSymbian Digest" (any ideas for a creative new name welcome !) and the email address might change as well but that is not sure yet.

So, how do we start our knowledge about the Symbian platform ? Upon my request Steve Lichfield was so kind as to write an introduction into the world of Symbian to explain the differences between the terms Symbian 60, 80, 90 and UIQ which appears on his website. There is already a wealth of further information and tips on his website as well as others (pls let us know any websites of particular interest). Steve allowed me to copy his introduction in the digest, which will follow by separate message.

We trust that you, the subscribers, will agree to this move and continue to read the digest for many more years to come. Feel free to discuss this matter in the digest, but please do keep to the digest rules and refrain from personal attacks and incorrect language.

With best regards,

Itamar Engelsman

The Epoc Digest Team

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Date: 19 Aug 2004 13:24:45 +0100

From: Itamar Engelsman

Subject: Introduction to Symbian

Dear All,

Further to my first message here follows the introduction to Symbian written by Steve Lichfield :

Brief history

=========

Symbian itself grew out of Psion Software (hence many of the similarities -often under the hood- between Psion's EPOC operating system and modern Symbian software platforms). Recognising that the future was a connected one, with messaging, email and web central, mobile phone giants Ericsson and Nokia (plus a few others) were involved in setting up the new consortium with the Psion staff.

Today (2004), Psion itself has more or less ceased to exist, leaving Nokia and Sony Ericsson as the two dominant partners, at least in terms of investment and new products.

Series what?

=========

Terms you'll see bandied around a lot include 'Series 60', 'Series 80' and 'UIQ'. These are all Symbian platforms, but don't despair because it's all really very simple.

First and foremost, UIQ is the stylus-based interface (heavily influenced by the easy-to-use Palm OS one) that's perhaps closest to Symbian's core. The best known examples of UIQ devices are the Sony Ericsson P800 and P900, although there are others, including the Motorola A920/925. Look beyond the Palm-like interface and you'll see much that's familiar from Psion days.

Going their own way (as always), Nokia opted for Symbian devices which didn't need a fragile touch-screen. The well-known Nokia 9210 effectively runs EPOC version 6 and is extremely similar to an old Psion Series 5mx in many, many ways, with the minor difference that the lack of a touch-screen necessitated a set of programmable command buttons to the right of the screen. Nokia refer to this interface as 'Series 80'. It's also going to be used in slightly tweaked form in the upcoming Nokia 9500.

Down at the other size extreme, Nokia has been very successful with their small-screen 'Series 60' interface. Again this is recognisable Symbian under the hood, but again there's no touch-screen and this time Nokia has written most of its own dumbed-down applications from scratch, ditching the standard Psion/Symbian ones presumably because they wouldn't suit the one-handed, button-driven interface and tiny (176 pixel-wide) screen.

What does all this mean?

===================

As you'll have seen in my recent PDA/smartphone comparison, the Series 60 devices are just too dumbed down for serious use. Power users need either a QWERTY keyboard or a touch-screen (and preferably both), for entry of new text and editing of existing entries. Not to mention all the more graphical apps and games which then become possible.

Which leaves Series 80 and UIQ. The Nokia 9210 is very long in the tooth now, with no GPRS or stereo sound output, though it's still a good second-hand bet is you need to do lots of typing. And the 9500's got a good six months before it's out in volume.

So the initially confusing Symbian scene actually resolves down to UIQ smartphones, perhaps aided by a Bluetooth or infrared keyboard if you want to do a lot of serious text entry.

For the full text with photos look at : http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk/symbianintro.htm

For much more info look at : http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk/

Best regards,

Itamar Engelsman

London, UK

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Date: 19 Aug 2004 07:35:32 +0100

From: Ian Chapple

Subject: Re: URLs, comparing contacts

Alan,

>> Although I only use Psions for e-mail, IE is easier for newsgroups (RMRnews is useless on most news servers) and browsing.

I have 'Text2Web' on my w98 box. It came on a cover CD. (see www.virdi.demon.co.uk ) This converts a .TXT file to a .HTML file.

On the w98 I have a file URL.TXT, where I copy any URL found on a web page (right click - copy shortcut). Both Text2Web and the text file are in my Taskbar, so are easy to access.

I also have a file on my Psion called URL.txt and I copy/paste to it from any Digest or e-mail. I copy the URL followed by a couple of spaces and then notes about why I want to have a look etc.

The contents of the Psion file are copied <Ctrl+C> to the w98 file <Ctrl+V> using 'CopyAnywhere', which is part of PsiWin. Then I run 'Text2Web'. The .HTML file is my home page.

So when I start IE, all the URLs and my notes are visable. I just right click and open in a new window any URL.

I've thought about copying back the .HTML file to a Psion to see if it would work in Web or Opera. If it does then I might think about an OPL to do the same as 'Text2Web' for when I'm not at home with w98.<<

I have a solution which might be better than the above, particularly if you wish to do all your work on a Psion. My MyNotes application, available from the FreEPOC website (www.freepoc.org) is a Jotter-style, note-taking program, which has one or two nice features which might be useful in this department:

* if a URL contained in a note is tapped on, it opens either Web or Opera, depending on the machine and which browsers are installed, and goes to the specified URL.

* an entire MyNotes file can be exported as an HTML file; this file can then be loaded into any browser, with most URLs which were present in the file being clickable.

I have used this functionality quite extensively, and it works very well; however, any feedback, positive or negative, would be useful, and suggestions for improvements are always welcome.

I have recently been working on a way to compare Contacts databases; I have the problem that new addresses often end up in my 5mx, because that

is what I have with me at work, while new email addresses, and addresses sent via email, end up in my netbook, because that is what I use for emailing at home. Comparing the two databases is tedious and time-consuming, so I have written a program that does it automatically. There are however one or two caveats:

1. it does not work on the Contacts databases themselves, only on exported VCF files.

2. both files have to be present on the machine where the program is to be run; which machine this is doesn't really matter, though the quicker the machine, the quicker the program runs.

Chris Handley has suggested trying to write a program which would synchronise Contacts databases via IR, which is certainly a nice idea, but for the moment this is beyond me, due to difficulties with extracting contact information directly from the Contacts databases; however, this is something that I shall certainly look in to. I would be happy to let this program out into the wild, if anybody would like to test it for me. There is absolutely no risk to the Contacts databases themselves, as the only data which is processed is the contents of the exported VCF files. If you are interested, email me at ian (dot.) chapple (at.) planet (dot.) nl.

Cheers, Ian.

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Date: 19 Aug 2004 09:33:27 +0100

From: Chris S Handley

Subject: Re: Series5, DOS better than Windows

Subject: Series5,

Itamar Engelsman wrote:

> The line "4MB, 8MB, 16MB, 24MB & 32MB" is no proof as the 24

> Mb and 32 Mb were never issued either. AFAIK there was no 4

> Mb series 5 but only the 8 Mb with the 5MX being 16 Mb.

I have a *vague* recollection that when I was first looking at buying at Psion5 cheaply, I was offered a second-hand machine with only 4Mb of memory - which I declined.

I would suggest that the 24Mb & 32Mb not being released is *indirect evidence* (but not proof) FOR a 4Mb version being released! Memory is expensive, but gets cheaper with time, so it would make sense to design a machine to handle different amount of memory, but then initially sell it using the lowest amount. They might not have sold the 4Mb version for very long, and not in large quantities, particularly *if* they sold an 8Mb simultaneously and it proved much more popular.

Regards,

Chris Handley

======================

Subject: DOS better than Windows

Alan Morris wrote:

> Rolf Brunsting wrote:-

>>> if the amount of development that has gone into windows had

>>> gone into DOS, we would have a far better OS than windows.

>> I'm sorry, but this is rather silly. DOS had reached the end

>> of its development .... Microsoft's developers had to

>> overcome these barriers when developing Windows 3.xx and

>> later Windows '95 while remaining backwards compatible.

> I accept the restrictions that you mention, but those

> restrictions were overcome in the program called Windows,

> that was running on DOS. Multi-tasking was part of DOS,

> before it was removed from DOS and put into Windows running

> on DOS - a marketing move!

I really didn't want to get into this argument, since both sides actually have some merit (well, like most arguments!), but I thought I might be able to shed a little light on the technical side:

While I completely avoided the DOS era (thanks to using other (better:) computers), in the past I have written some fairly advanced hacks in assembler for MS-DOS, and so have some idea of what I talk about...

AFAIK, true multi-tasking (even just cooperative) has never been part of MS-DOS, ever. There simply is no allowance for sharing resources (particularly processor time, keyboard & screen) between two different programs.

The only way of achieving the illusion of a little utility running simultaneously with an actual application, is through a trick that is not unlike using Macros to extend an application on the Psion; the utility can be caused to temporarily take-over the machine when certain circumstances arise, such as certian keypresses or after a certain time. This is done by making the utility a so-called Terminate-and-Stay-Resident (TSR) program, which also patches certain parts of MS-DOS to activate it when required.

HOWEVER, I am not saying that multitasking is impossible under DOS - it certainly was possible, and at least several people have written a layer which runs on-top-of DOS, which allow a limited form of multitasking within DOS, BUT I don't think Microsoft ever took this step, and most probably never officially sanctioned one either (since I guess such layers weren't very reliable due to their hackish nature).

You might argue that Windows is simply a more advanced layer running on-top-of DOS, but at least by Windows 9x, it makes so few calls to DOS while it is running that it would be fairer to say that Windows replaces DOS rather than runs on-top-of it. But the fact that Windows 9x still had to provide programs with full DOS compatibility, meant that it could not circumvent some of DOS's limitations. Of course, Win XP no longer provides full DOS compatibility.

The 'secret' as to why Microsoft prefered to replace DOS by Windows, rather than extending DOS further, was that DOS's design was so antiquated that adding any more modern features was either simply not possible (without breaking compatility) or doomed to incredibly poor performance (by even Microsoft standards). I'm sure Microsoft knew the writing was on the wall for DOS long before Windows 1.x, but they needed something much more compelling than DOS to make people leave DOS behind, and that turned out to be a windowed graphical user interface (and poor multitasking;-) .

Regards,

Chris Handley

P.S. Some of what I write is of course opinion, but I'm sure you can tell which.

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Date: 19 Aug 2004 13:24:39 +0100

From: Itamar Engelsman

Subject: Missing issues,

Answer to: Antony Booth

Re.: Missing issues - All digests went out and there is no problem with the numbering, I have got all the digests stored on my nB and received these via the same emails as everyone else. It is of course possible that your ISP rejected the digest, Rolf Vonau as the current operator could confirm whether this was the case or not. If you need some back copies, send a message with ADMIN in the subject field and we will send these to you (I already sent you your missing ones zipped up just now).